Mekonta ?

The scenery I have encountered in Arizona and Utah is so unearthly in its rock formations and its colour palette, that I think that if I woke up tomorrow in Mekonta, capital of Northern Venus, my eyes would not be surprised. Perhaps Chad Varah, Frank Hampson and his team visited these parts before they drew and painted the stories of space exploration in the Eagle - those stories and images that so enraptured Patrick and me in the fifties. Today the feeling of fantasy was heightened further, as we trekked the Navajo Trail at Bryce Canyon. Technically Bryce is not a canyon, but a long high plateau that is continuously being eroded into fantastical shapes, known as hoodoos: it is a rapidly changing landscape as hoodoos "die" (or get washed away) and new hoodoos get "born". This genuinely amazing place took its name prosaically from a guy called Bryce who happened to build his log cabin near the entrance. When asked about the wonders of the land lying directly behind his house his comment was simply: " It's a hell of a place to lose a cow" !

Bryce is quite a bit higher in altitude than Zion or Kanab (pronounced K'nab, by the way), and so there were pockets of snow in many parts of the park, and quite a lot at Rainbow Point, the furthest place we reached in our visit. Like Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks, Bryce is equally well-organised with shuttle buses in season (not until May, so we didn't avail ourselves of these, but drove to the areas we wanted to visit), and well marked trails of various levels of difficulty. We chose the "moderate" level Navajo trail, because we've already established that we can do these easily, even the steep ascents and descents, and because it has some spectacular viewpoints and features, such as arched hoodoos. It was a very pleasant trek, and we could have done more. Instead we elected to visit each of the most important "rim" viewpoints to ensure that we had a good overall feel for the whole strange, but beautiful rocky feature.

Arriving back at Kanab, we decided to eat well tonight and went to Parry Lodge, the little motel used by all the old Western stars in the olden days. It's a white ranch like building with a nice-ish restaurant, complete with fans, lace curtains and an old time feel about it. They served me a glass of undrinkable red wine - like communion wine - which I politely sent back and had beer instead. There is a drinkable pilsner brewed in Salt Lake City - only 4% but most beer available in Utah is "lite".

We are all in good form and getting ready for our drive further north tomorrow. We hope to visit Capitol Reef National Park on our way to Glen River. James is in charge of maps, and I just drive when required :-)