Bryce is much more than 'nice', I just said that to be a catchy rhyme for the title. Cheesy, I know.
Bryce National Park is spectacular, breath taking, stunning. It is, and has always been, my favorite National Park.
Can you see why?
The temperature dropped almost 40 degrees in those few hours of driving from Moab to Bryce National Park and we actually had to pull out our jackets. What a refreshing relief from the heat!
It was a needed relief, too. Bridger has not been tolerating this intense sun very well. In fact, he drops out completely comatose within 3 minutes of being exposed to the bright sun. It nearly scared us at first. He seems like he is completely asleep, but it happens too quickly for him to have dropped off to sleep. His eyes are half open like a seizure - but he is not seizing (at least I don't think so). He just completely shuts down and the covers and canopies we have created for him don't seem to help. We keep checking to make sure he is breathing because it doesn't look like he is. Weird and scary. We were grateful to see him perk up with the lower temperatures and cool breeze of the higher elevation! It was too much of a pain to pull out the wheelchair for the quick overlooks so Alan would be the pack mule and carry Bridger back and forth to the car. Those two sure had some good bonding time on this trip!
Bridger was so perked up that he was down right goofy (his baseline) and would only be silly for the pictures that I was trying to get him to pose for. He insisted on rubbing Eliza's hair into a crazy 'do every time she got near him to pose.
On the shorter hikes I pushed the wheelchair uphill, which more than burned off all of the calories from the entire pack of Twizzlers I consumed driving to Bryce. When the wheelchair couldn't go any further, the rest of the pack continued to the summit and Bridger, Ty and I played some games together while we waited for them.
Can you tell how much we love our new furry additional to our family? All of these excursions would have been extremely taxing for Bridger (and, consequently, for me) but now Bridger can be excitedly preoccupied with his buddy, Ty, while the others get to finish the fun they are having instead of having to leave prematurely when Bridger starts melting down out of frustration or boredom.
We wrapped up our fun here and set off for our overnight accommodations. Our previous hotels have been boring crash pads with nothing more exciting than a hot breakfast. This night I pull out the secret weapon -- a FUN hotel! I was praying that we could get there before dark because we were in the middle of NOWHERE!
But, for the record, Nowhere couldn't be more wonderful.