Scotland

Haggis.  WTF, why not?  Not nearly as bad as I expected.

The Scottish Countryside

A Ginger Enjoying Gingerbread

And not just any ginger bread, but Sarah Nelson's Celebrated Gingerbread from Grasmere Gingerbread in Grasmere, the English Lake District, en route to Scotland.

Play that funky music, Whiteboy!

London

Here we are in England, hobnobbing with the Queens's guards' spectators' near neighbours (spelled with a u) and watching for Liz herself.  The flags said she was in residence at Buckingham.  She didn't appear.

Last evening, after eating at Le Escargot (which claims to be the oldest French restaurant in London [we had the fish and chips]), we went to see the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End of London.  Spell-binding.

Most Comical Park in America

Goblin Valley State Park

Years ago I had heard that this small Utah State Park was the most comical park in America.  At the time I had difficulty understanding just what that meant.

Now I understand.














Situated twenty-some miles north of Hanksville UT, Goblin Valley spreads these odd formations across the landscape, inviting comparisons to fantasy figures out of fairy tales.

The Henry Mountains in the background

A very entertaining place to take a walk, despite the crowds on Spring Break.

Then we headed back south to Cedar Mesa and camped at the head of Bullet Canyon, an arm of Grand Gulch.  We visited a very special place down along Bullet, Perfect Kiva.

Last stabilized in 1975, Perfect Kiva is in astonishingly good condition

East Toward Home

April Fools' Return

Leaving the extreme heat of Death Valley behind us, we spent a night in Cedar City UT and enjoyed dinner at the local classic Milt's Steak House.  Next morning, the last day of March, we journeyed east toward Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef NP, Goblin Valley State Park, Natural Bridges NP, Cedar Mesa, Grand Gulch, and eventually, home.

Bryce Canyon

"Hell of a place to lose a cow."  That's how one pioneer rancher summed up the topography of these tens of thousands of hoodoos.

 At nine thousand feet elevation Bryce Canyon had plenty of snow left on April Fools Day.  And a low morning temp of 8 on April 2nd.

According to the Paiute people, what we today call the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon were once the Legend People, and they were of many kinds -- birds, animals, lizards and such -- but they had the power to make themselves look like people.  For some reason, the Legend People were bad, and eventually Coyote turned them all to stone, just as we see them today, standing in rows, sitting, holding on to each other.

Quite the Crowd of Legend People

As awesome as the views are from the top, hiking down among the hoodoos is more awe-inspiring yet.

 Two nights at Brrrryce was enough.  Next, on toward southeast Utah.