Bryce Canyon is next on our travels, a 2.5 hour drive from Zion. Its the smallest park we've visited so far which means less campsites within the park - just two and they're both fully booked. This means we are camping just outside the park but the free shuttle picks up outside our campsite. The site is a bit more expensive but we get to use decent, free showers and toilets!

After pitching up we went into the park and to a couple of the viewpoints that overlook the incredible 'hoodoos'. Its like watching over an ancient city, amazingly carved over time by the elements. Its a wonder that we can still come across unique sights on our travels after seeing so much but it continues to happen.

At night we went to another Ranger program, this one about astronomy, canyons and the fact that Bryce Canyon was incorrectly named because it isn't one! There was never any water that flowed through carving away the rock. This interesting hour long presentation was followed by an excellent couple of hours gazing into the night sky!

Not only did we learn about various constellations and how to identify them, we saw Saturn and the moon through extremely powerful telescopes, many shooting stars, satellites gliding across the sky and the brightest thing in the night sky - the international space station (with a brand new toilet) that unbelievably orbits earth every 90 minutes! We came away with a whole new appreciation of astronomy and very stiff necks!

Next morning, even though my legs were still aching from the huge hike in Zion, we got up close to the towers in Bryce by taking a steady stroll through them. This gave a whole new perspective of the hoodoos as you could appreciate them individually as opposed to collectively from above.

After lunch we went back into the thick of it but not on foot - on horseback. This was fantastic and a lot of fun. Sam rode hungry Tony, my mule was affectionately known as Janay, Jase handled Blue Jay and Becks tickled Bud all the way! It was a bit anxious for us when travelling downhill on the rim although we had some control over the horses to steer them away. All of us apart from Sam! Tony was not only hungry, he was extremely stubborn and pretty much did whatever he wanted. When Sam tried to steer him, he promptly swung his head and told her to stop...by biting her feet!! I was following Sam the whole way and found this highly amusing!

The horses could do with learning a thing or two about toilet habits - currently, they're stopping whenever they feel like it to empty just about everything - and bud, well....lets just say it was a bit windy down there!

With the horses doing all the work we could really appreciate the surroundings and listen to the tales of when Butch Cassidy used to hide around these parts.

It was all horses today as we went to a traditional rodeo show to finish off our day. Well, we didn't know whether to laugh or cry! It started with bucking bronco's as cowboys tried to hang on to wild horses for 8 seconds while making the horses angrier with spurs (they're gunners - haha!). This was followed by youngsters, some as young as 5 or 6, racing huge horses around cones in a time trial. That was quite impressive to see how much control such a small person could have.

The next bit was the controversial bit! Think white, fluffy animals (not rabbits!). Then think of the same kids as in the last event, maybe even smaller. Then put the two together. Then think the same 8 seconds as the broncos! Yes, kids riding sheep. Kids getting thrown from sheep. Kids being unwillingly held to the sheep by the adults! Sam was possibly scarred from this, although I'm sure I saw her laugh! Very disturbing. One child was definitely screaming while others were clearly enjoying themselves! Yes.. I filmed it!

That night in the tents it was cold - very, very cold. We had agreed to wake early to catch the sunrise and we were very glad to be in the warm car en route to sunrise point. At around am we were stood, freezing, watching the most amazing colours as the sun crept over Bryce. We then went for a hot chocolate and found out the temperature had dropped to -4°c overnight!