Utah

	Yes - Ann took this picture too.
We stayed right outside Bryce Canyon at Ruby Resort. The Ruby family owned this property before Bryce was a National Park. They have kept it for over 80 years and developed it into a major resource. They had a rodeo, helicopter rides, huge restaurant, hotel, gift shop, 2 gas stations, car rental, ATV rentals and bike rentals. The campground is nice. We are at 7500 feet.
	Here is Bryce Canyon. We are at over 8000 feet. This is the top of the amphitheatre. It is an incredible, breathtaking view of geologic formation.
Here are the "hoodoos." There are miles and miles of these all over the park. The deep orange-red color from the iron content make such a great visual contrast to the blue sky.
	We took the Queen's Garden trail which was .8 mile and a 630 foot descent under the rim. It was over 100 degrees while we were hiking.
Colleen and Ann took a break a little past Queens Garden. The rest of the gang hiked into Wall Street, which was another 3-4 miles roundtrip. Wall Street is where the path is blocked from a rock fall.
	After Bryce Canyon National Park we drove our rental car to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park, which was 35 minutes away. There is over 2900 square miles of diverse country side. This whole area of Southwest Utah was covered by a sea millions of years ago which split up North America. There is a large source of fossils and ancient pertroglyphs. The cool part is all the roads are unpaved in the park. Some are recommended for automobiles and others are marked for ATVs -miles and miles of paths. Here was a washout. Phil drove us through and managed to get the car a little wet. On the way out there was also a washout to the right of this and we managed to make a circle and hit both washouts.
We drove for about 30 minutes on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. The kids were sure we were lost. All of sudden we saw a sign for Grosvenor Arch. That was the first sign we had seen for 30 minutes. Below, Phil and Patrick stand by the arch and the car. Out in the middle of this desert-like area was a bathroom, some picnic tables and parking. It is still over 100 degrees. Below and to the right is a close-up of the arch.

	That night Ruby's Inn put on a fireworks show for the Fourth of July. It was a big production for the number of people in that area. We drove up and sat down close as it started and then were in awe for 20 minutes. The next day we headed for Zion National Park which was about an hour away. Here is a view of the park. The canyons were carved by the Virgin River.
At Zion there is a 1.1 mile tunnel which was built in the 1930's. When we entered the park we had to pay an extra $15. They closed the tunnel and we went through with a ranger escort because we were too wide for the tunnel. We drove right down the middle. From the east side there was no wait. From the west side, there was a line of cars waiting their turn..
	Zion is also over 6000 feet. It has a dry desert-like environment mixed with these oasis of trees and water falls.
Here is the lower pool which is a short hike. Those small people on the bottom right are Patrick, Will, Michelle, Ann, Madeline and Colleen. We had to cut the picture to get it all in.

	Here is the top part of the Upper Pool. The water drained down into a large round pool. The total hike was 4 miles. We had lunch and then headed on to Las Vegas.