Bryce-part 1

Bryce Canyon is my happy place.

Something about the contrasting colors of the rocks, hoodoos, trees, and shadows that just makes me want to soak it in.

After our long (and somewhat stressful) ride the day before, we had gone to bed early listening to the rain outside.  Good thing we slept well because we had an early wake up to drive into the park for this:

We were spending the morning on a horse ride into, and around the canyon.

 It's been two years since we had ridden, but the boys picked it right back up.
We got acquainted with our horses (Kieran-Pecos, Keenan-Big D, Rachael-Cadillac, Kevin-Vance) and set off.

 It was a beautiful morning to be exploring the hoodoo's.

 Beautiful.

 Our guide pointed out that the bright red along some of the hoodoo's is because of the high amount of iron oxide in the rocks.  Along the valley you can spot some charred remnants of pine trees scattered around.  They are not from a forest fire, but lightning strikes.  The iron in the rocks, and the tall trees growing from the valley floor act as natural lightning rods, and when a tree gets struck....it usually explodes, or becomes incredibly twisted by the electricity hitting it and pulling all it's moisture around it.

 Thankfully we did not have to worry about any lightning, but just sat back and enjoyed our views.

 We climbed back out of the canyon, and said goodbye to our wonderful guide and horses.
Perfect way to spend a morning.

 We strolled around by the park Lodge and admired the views....and noticed some large clouds rolling in.  So instead of eating lunch and exploring the park some more, we decided to head back to our campsite.
The clouds moved in quickly, and as Kevin was backing the RV in, the bottom fell out and a massive hailstorm unloaded over us. Kieran had the pleasure of being in the hail as he was directing Kevin into our RV space.

The hail continued while we ate lunch, then the rain and thunder and lightning began.

The rain continued off and on all afternoon so we just decided to stay put and relax in the RV...and catch up on some overdue laundry.
The rain finally moved off by dinner, so we strolled over to Ruby's and dined out, then strolled back to the RV to play more hearts and listen to music.
Wonderful day.