I thought I was escaping the cold--vacation part 1

We love to travel! Naturally I prefer to head out of the country and experience something completely new, but at times it is great to explore your own back yard.

Eduardo spent months planning out our trip, only to find out a few weeks before that we couldn't go for the entire week. Disappointed, we came up with a great trip for shorter Spring Break. Our never-ending winter was still in full-force at home, at least it seemed, and I was ready for sunshine. Let's say I was grateful I took my heavy coat!

Day One we drove down to beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park in Southern Utah at an elevation of over 9,000 feet! We followed that morning's winter storm all the way down and was greeted with plenty of snow.

This was one of the only nice photos of the canyon before the snow started up. I have fond memories of Bryce Canyon as a teenager when I went with a youth group from church. I wish that Eduardo and my family could have seen the Bryce Canyon that I remember.

Although, I'm sure that this is a trip that they will NEVER forget. Our travel companions consisted of my mother, Livy, myself, Eduardo and my little sister Kachena.

We never expected to see so much snow. There we several outlooks on an 18 mile stretch of road. There is plenty to see and many hiking trails, which naturally we weren't interested in.

Part way up the canyon, we picked up a hitch-hiker. This is usually a no-no in my book. He asked us to take him to the end of canyon to pick up his car. He and his college friends from Indiana had been back-country hiking for the past 4 days. Apparently the first few days were great until the end when they were hiking in near waist deep snow. Not my idea of fun!

On Day Two, all bundled up we stopped at Red Canyon on our way out of Bryce.

Red Canyon was gorgeous, even with the sprinkling of snow. It didn't receive nearly as much snow because we had descended a few thousand feet to a lower elevation. One interesting thing about Red Canyon is that this is where the infamous wild west outlaw, Butch Cassidy, had one of his hideouts.

(Side Note: I have always loved history. In high school I took an extra history class just for fun. This wasn't any old class about ancient history but rather an exciting class on the history of the American West.)

I saw a red dirt road running along the canyon and thought it would be fun to see Red Canyon up close. It was a beautiful drive although we it took us some time to find a way out.

Our drive continued sometime to make our next stop at Zion National Park, also in Southern Utah.

We came across several of these sheriff vehicles on this drive. The odd thing is that there is a mannequin sitting in the driver seat.

To be continued...