Over 1,700 miles driven. 2 National Parks in 2 days. 24 hours of driving.

Things are definitely different in 2020. My next blog post was going to be from our adventures in Peru in October, but of course that is not happening. So much uncertainty and frightening things going on in our world right now. As frequent travelers, travel bans and quarantines have been quite difficult.

Before I get into the summary of our trip, I do want to mention that we are beyond grateful and blessed for our situation in this current time. We have full time jobs that we are able to do from home and have stayed healthy. Not being able to travel was the least of our worries and we fully understood why now is not a good time to fly or travel. We debated since early June if taking some kind of road trip in the Jeep would be possible, but we did not want to do it if we put ourselves or others at risk. So before embarking on this very short but sweet journey we took every precaution, researched everything we were going to do and every place we would visit/stay. We were equipped with massive amounts of hand sanitizer, our masks, and most of what we did was outdoors with the ability to social distance. We used gloves at every gas station, and followed all rules for restaurants and our hotel.

Now onto our trip.

We originally planned on going to Yosemite here in California and had a hotel booked and park pass purchased. Then the recent fires were nearby enough to that location to make the air quality and visibility very poor. We read posts and saw pics of people who lived in that area or visted Yosemite in the past few days and all said to stay far away. So we cancelled and rebooked everything for Utah just two days before we left. It was very last minute, but we are so happy we went ahead with a trip instead of just cancelling and staying home.

We left a little before 9am on Wednesday, August 26. We decided to take our time and maybe see some sites along the freeway as we were not going to do anything once we got to our hotel other than sleep. Our first stop we tried was Bottle Tree Ranch along Route 66 outside of Victorville, CA. We checked hours of operation, and it said it was open, with no exceptions noted, however when we got there, it was empty and the gate was locked. We did however get some pics from outside the fence and did get to see most of the place. I included a few pictures from there.

Jaime has been visiting Kobe Bryant tribute murals around Southern California, and there were a few in Vegas. We stopped at one just off the strip. It was a nice place to stretch for a bit.

We stopped for gas and snacks of course along the way and made it to Bryce Canyon City a little after 6pm, Utah time. (they are one hour ahead from California.) Before we even got to our hotel, we stopped for some pics as the scenery and nature was incredible! We checked into our hotel (more on that experience in a bit) and went to a diner across the street. Home-cookin' was definitely the ticket after being in the Jeep all day. Their french fries we got as a side were some of the best we had ever had. And when we asked for a side of ranch, well we got a whole bowl of ranch. Definitely our kind of place. They had a salad bar which we each got one trip to with our meals, we were hesitant at first, but they had disposable gloves everybody had to wear when going to the salad bar and masks had to be worn, and it was all very clean and safe.

Speaking of clean and safe, we stayed at a Best Western Hotel. There were plenty of options for smaller and probably cheaper places to stay, but in researching hotel chains, Best Western has very top of the line and thorough cleaning practices and we read reviews from people who stayed there in the past few days before us and all spoke very highly of the cleanliness and hospitality. The cleaning staff did not even enter our room the entire time we were there. If we needed extra towels, or trash removed, we had to call and leave it outside the door. Even though we were to assume our room was more than clean, I still brought a large container of Clorox wipes and wiped everything down myself for peace of mind as well. All the guests followed guidlelines of wearing masks in the common areas. They even provided hot breakfast as part of the stay and had masked/gloved employees serve us. I honestly can say, this was probably the cleanest, safest trip we have EVER been on. I will give a shout-out to Best Western for really stepping up and making their guests feel at ease in this uncertain time. And breakfast, which as you know from our other trips is our favorite meal, well that was a major plus too.

We purchased a pass to enter Bryce Canyon before we left. We read online it can be quite a long line to get into the park and from what we read, Bryce was not limited guests in the park. However, when we got into the park shortly before 10am on Thursday, there was literally no line. Jaime was able to show his Veteran's ID and get an all-access lifetime pass to ALL US National parks! They were not able to refund the pass we already bought, but that was ok as we were not sure if passes would be available when we arrived, and we did not want to take that risk.

We went to the visitor center to inquire about the best trail for us to do. One of the employees recommended what is called the Figure-8 Combination, which was roughly a 5 hour hike round trip, but would give us the "greatest hits" of all the sites and views one should see when visiting Bryce. He warned us to have plenty of water and snacks as there was a ton of inclines. Lucky for us, I am always prepared. You can see the trail we took on the map in my photo album for this entry.

We had literally nowhere to be that day, and it was only 10am so a 5 hour hike was like, sure why not. BUT HOLY COW IT FELT LIKE WE WERE HIKING FOR 2 WEEKS! It was hot, we ascended 1631 feet total, but with all of the ups and downs it felt way more than that. Luckily neither of us felt alitutde sickness, but we were feeling it in our legs. Good thing we've spent literally all month running as that helped train us for this hike.

As you could probably gather from me saying there was no line to get in the park, the trails were also pretty empty. We definitely passed several people, but most had masks. A lot of people had them pulled down their face, and would pull them up when people passed, which is totally fair, because sweaty mask face on a 5 hour hike is not pleasant. and of course we removed masks for photos as well. There was a HUGE portion of our hike when we got to the second portion called Peek-A-Boo Trail where we didn't see anybody else on the paths for a LONG TIME. We were like, no wonder, this hike is TERRIBLE! Now of course I say that jokingly, because honestly, every turn we took and rock arch we walked through, led to just unbelievable views. It was like we were seeing fake scenery on TV or something, just crazy that places like this exist. To say we were in awe is an understatement.

Only minor snag on our hike was I cut my finger on a can. It hurt but thankfully I have a hiking first aid kit I keep in my hiking back pack. So we were able to patch that up quick. We had our Camel-paks full of water in addition to extra water bottles, and those were DEPLETED by the end of our hike. But we had a cooler full of extra cold water waiting for us at the Jeep.

When we got toward the end of the hike, we got to this part called "Wall Street" and it was zigs and zags of endless inclines. When we got to the top I literally ran to the end and did the Rocky thing where I put my arms up and jumped up and down. Getting to the Jeep and drinking that extra cold water was amazing, and once we sat down, THAT was when we really felt it in our legs. BUT we still took the top off the Jeep and drove the rest of the way through the park and stopped at the notable look out points. BUT NO MORE HIKING. Sheesh.

It was on the trail that we decided we would visit Arches the very next day. Here is the thing. Arches is NOWHERE NEAR Bryce, really. But we figured as had no idea when we would be in that part of the country again, and had no plans the following day, AND had just been given an all-access pass to all the National Parks, we decided to just do it.

We then found a local tavern to have dinner and returned to the hotel to sleep as we wanted to start our road trip within our road trip to Arches very early the next day. More on that in my next entry.

To sum up: We hiked FOREVER. But I will give the park employee this, we did see all the notable formations and views in Bryce. AND WE WORKED FOR IT! We drove to the cool viewpoints along the park. The sun was hot, but we had plenty of water, snacks, and sunscreen. We can boast no sunburns or injuries. (Except my minor cut which was fine by the end of the day) We took HUNDREDS of photos as everything was just so breathtaking, but I only shared the most notable pics. I bought a small tripod and we had our selfie stick so we did not have to ask people to take our photo. It was HOT, but not unbearable and was absolutely NOT crowded in the park or on the trails. I cannot imagine it is pleasant to be there when it is crowded. A lot of the trails are narrow and the congestion of people cannot be pleasant in the heat. BUT during this pandemic, and given that it was a weekday during the school year, we caught the park at just the right time.

So check out my photo album for our drive in and our day at Bryce. Also check out the "Videos" tab at the top as I shot two very short videos (about 10 seconds each) of some of the views.