We stayed at a recently renovated hotel, but they told us
that, due shortage of staff, they will not serve breakfast tomorrow. So I ask, “Where
is a good place to get breakfast?” “Oh, there is a nice place about four or five
miles up this road, the way you are going. The name is ‘The Shop Coffee.’ It is
a strange way to say it, but that is what it is called, ‘The Shop Coffee.’” “Okay,”
I answer, “That sounds like a good place. We will look for it.” “It is in an
old Sinclair gas station that they renovated, now it is a coffee house,” she
said. I ask, “Is the Sinclair sign still up?” “Oh, yes, the sign is still
there!” she answered with a big smile. “And the Dino the dinosaur statue is
still out front.” I think to myself, this could be interesting.
This morning we get up, pack our things, and leave the
hotel. Sure enough, about four and a half miles down the road, in the town of
Orderville, Utah, there is a Sinclair gas station with pumps out front, and the
former car maintenance bays were converted to a coffee shop. We park and go in.
It is clean and nicely done, even the roll-up doors were fitted with glass so
it was all windows. They have coffee and make several kinds of sandwiches on
croissant. We order. I ask, “Do you still sell gas?” “Yes, we do.” I think to
myself, I heard about a place that had a sign out front, “Eat here and get gas.”
I guess this place would qualify for that sign. But the coffee is good, the
sandwiches are satisfying. With that, we finish our food and drive towards
Bryce Canyon National Park.
A distance down the road we turn on to route 12. The route
12 we have read and heard about. Further down the road it passes through some
of the most scenic places in the country. But it is curvy and hilly and in
places narrow, not for the faint of heart, they say. But that is for another
day, not today.
We have not gone far when we begin to see red cliffs, beautiful
scenery. We pull into a pull-off, take the selfie our family requested, and soon are in conversation with two young
women from Ontario, taking a week to visit some of the national parks in Utah. Then
we are on our way to Bryce.
There are signs, turn right to Bryce National Park. Another sign
says, “In-park parking may be full. Park before the gate and take the free shuttle.”
We soon see a sign for shuttle parking
and we find a spot and board the shuttle
bus.
Bryce Canyon is a long, narrow park, about 13 miles long
with one road running down the center and a series of viewing stops. There we
learn the shuttle does not go the full length, but to a viewing area a couple
miles in. We disembark at Bryce Point. There we see the part of the park called
the Amphitheater, a large circular area filled with formations called hoodoos,
tall, vertical columns bunched together like spectators at a performance in a
large auditorium. We decide to walk from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point,
about one mile around the rim of the Amphitheater. It gives us views from
different angles, all amazing and beautiful. There we board the shuttle again and take it back to
where we left the car, because we want to drive to the end of the park.
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Thor's Hammer (center)
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It takes about 30 minutes to drive the distance. We get out
and view the formations, take some pictures, then drive on, stop at a scenic pull-off,
take some pictures, drive to the next pull-off, etc., Rainbow Point, Black
Birch Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, Agua Canyon, Natural Bridge, Fairview Point,
Piracy Point, Swamp Canyon, to Sunset Point.
A few of the formations are given names. There is Queen Victoria,
hoodoo that appears to have a crown on her head and a full skirt, but the hike
to see her was too much for our sore knees and feet. But we take a short hike
to see Thor’s Hammer, a hoodoo that is shaped like a hammer handle with a
larger head on top, like a hammer.
Soon we are on our way to the “hotel” we booked for the night,
a small cowboy-themed log cabin. Across the street is Rustler’s Restaurant, also
cowboy-themed. Could this possibly be cowboy country?
We are impressed with the appearance of relative prosperity
on the ranches and farms, in contrast to some areas we have passed. With
irrigation, there is green grass, perhaps for grazing. The farms appear
well-kept and recently built. One farm was baling hay. Could they possibly
export some to Virginia?*
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