Day 49 - Hoodoo Magic
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
51
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Junction,
Utah,
United States
Sunday, July 6, 2008
1; a body of practices of sympathetic magic traditional especially among blacks in the southern United States
2; a natural column of rock in western North America often in fantastic form
We awoke to blue sky but it was short lived, as by the time we got to the most southerly point in the park, we could see a huge storm back up where we had started out. Bryce Canyon is made up of a series of horseshoe shaped canyons filled with amazing rock formations called hoo-doos. There are various "stop-offs" at points along the main road through the park and we stopped off and admired the views at most of them.
At one of our final ones, there was a couple standing off the path in an area which was clearly marked as out of bounds due to the park services trying to re-cultivate the vegetation there (no doubt previously trampled on). We made some comments to each other but carried on about our business, until on our way back to the bus, he was standing right in the middle of this off-limits area, feet away from the sign that stated there was a $100 fine for violation of this order, while his wife photographed him stood in there! Mel flipped!!! She went across to the railings next to him and asked if he could read. He ignored her! So she asked if he spoke English (there are a lot of foreign tourists in the park), ignored! Asked again if he could read. At which point in a really cocky attitude he replied, "yeah, I can read". So Mel pointed out the sign to him, to which he replied "Quite frankly I don't give a s**t"!!!!! Well we both replied "that's quite obvious", before he got really abusive and told us to mind our own business and "go away" not very politely!
So it's time to shame this obnoxious ****er,! If you know this man you should be very, very ashamed of him and you should tell him so!
We also nearly got taken out on one of the bends by someone who had obviously gone to sleep at the wheel. Either that or he just felt he had a God-given right to be on both sides of the road.
So after a rather eventful visit to Bryce Canyon we headed north again on Highway 89 through the valley between the Mineral Mountains and the Henry Mountains. The weather was moving in and we experienced quite heavy rain and very, very strong winds.
We turned off the highway at a town called "Junction" and headed into the mountains to find our camp-site, City Creek Campground in the Fishlake National Forest, which turned out to be up a dirt track about half-way up a mountain. Very quiet and peaceful and free!
Distance travelled: 97 miles
Total distance travelled: 3048 miles
Days on road: 29
States visited: 6
National Parks visited: 6
