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Wednesday 8th August
After a crazy 36 hours in man made wonders of Vegas we set out to see some natural wonders which started in the National Parks of Utah. When we first thought it was just full of Mormans and little else but we were very wrong. The beauty started at Zion National Park where after paying $12 each entrance fee we hiked to three emerald pools. The hike was hot and the dust left your mouth dry. Unfortunately we were not allowed to swim in the pools so instead we took advanted of some stream run off which was extremely cold and refreshing.
That evening we headed to our next stop, Bryce Canyon National Park. We arrived at dusk and had some cheap fast food, which was our only option on the vast open highways of Utah! With some time to kill and not feeling tired yet we decided to drive up to the entrance of the national park where one usually pays $25 for entree. However due to the time no one was on guard to charge us so we sailed stright throught the gates to check it out. As we only planned to look at the view from the top of sunrise point and not spend the day (or week as the $25 would have covered) we elected to sleep in the car, see the what we wanted first thing and then sneak out if possible without paying the fee.
We drove past sunset point and figured with no signs to help us that sunrise point (where the morning view would be best) must be the other side of the canyon. We drove to the end of the road (17 miles) only to find the dead end at rainbow point. Hmmmm... so we back tracked and found it right at the entrance. The drive was not a waste however as we saw countless white tailed deer scampering about on their nightly feed.
At 5 am we woke up, grabbed our sleeping bags and hiked about a mile to sunrise point. There we watched the beauty unfold as all we'd seen of Bryce so far was pitch black. The only other place within the National Park that we wanted to check out was Bryce Point so we drove around trying to find it and suddenly found ourselves half way out the exit. Emergency breaking and straight into reverse only to look behind us and see a cop car towering over our pontiac! Gulp! He pulled up and asked us, "what's wrong?" to which I hastily replied, "We don't wanna go out yet!" He paused for a second looked at me and said in a red neck hick voice "Dont matter, you can go right back in". "Of course we can" I said with a nervous chuckle. Knowing that without a pass we'd have to pay to get back in we sat there and fumbled through papers as if looking for our ticket, hoping he'd pull out from behind us and drive off... THANKFULLY he did, and we swiftly reversed and headed back in to the park through the exit.
After seeing the amazing view at Bryce Point we set off to do our laundry and have a healthy breakfast of cold strawberry cheese cake pop tarts (we're on a budget here people!) Having dried our clothes our next stop was a 126 ft waterfall about an hour away and we hoped to make it there b4 the heat of the day. Setting off at midday we hiked 3 miles through a vally to the waterfall. We were so hot we jumped straight into the pool a the foot of the falls and tried our best to swim underneath it. The cold water was like a thousand knives stabbing you at once and it took Maz two attempts to succeed. Totally worth it! We then dried off in the sun and slept for an hour before heading back and setting off to Colorado.
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