Zion and Bryce National Parks

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our 3 day trip up to Zion and Bryce National Parks.
Zion is about 2 1/2 hours from our house, and Bryce, another 1 1/2 hours.
We left early Tuesday and arrived at the entrance to Zion around 11 am their time They are in Mountain time.  They are an hour ahead of Vegas. I had bought a Senior Park Pass online over 3 weeks ago, but didn't receive it before we left. We figured we'd have to pay to get in. I printed out my e-mail confirmation, hoping that would be enough to get us in.  The ranger was so very nice and understanding and gave us a free pass.   :-)
It was a little cool, around 60. But not bad. We had been to these 2 parks about 20 some years ago. Zion, you travel through a valley surrounded by giant vertical cliffs that were carved by the river that runs through it. This is the only pic I got in there because the valley is so narrow and the cliffs so high.....

Surprisingly, despite everything I had read, the park wasn't that busy. We were able to easily see everything we wanted. We had lunch at the park lodge. Then we headed out of the parks other entrance to spend the night in Kanab.  On the way to the other end of the park, there's a mile long tunnel through the mountain.....

Kanab is sort of between Zion and Bryce. The next morning we headed to Bryce. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive. Again, I explained the the ranger about buying my pass online but didn't receive it, and they again, let us in without paying.   :-)
Bryce was a lot colder than Zion even though they are only about an hour apart. That's because you go through Zion on the canyon floor, and Bryce, you go along the top of the canyon which was between 8000 and 9000 ft. A chilly 50 degrees.

But the views more than made up for it.   :-)

The unique erosion of the area produces these amazing rock towers! 

And here's me here some 20 years ago near the same spot. Back then, they had iron bars for railings, now, they have these massive wood beams and stone columns  to keep people from going over the edge.

It was a really nice trip remembering and re seeing everything. From Bryce, we headed over to I-15 and spent the night in Cedar City Utah. This morning we made the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Vegas. A very nice trip and a good time of year to do it as the crowds were very small.