The Honeymoon Backroads Trip To Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, 9/12/00 - 9/21/00
The Honeymoon Backroads Trip To Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, 9/12/00 - 9/21/00
(Click on the thumbnail picture for full-size version)
Click here for Backroads official description of this trip
(Trip logistics may have changed a bit since we took it)


Unfortunately, the Paris theme continued into the honeymoon...

Living statue in the mall at the Venetian.
Well, I thought it was cool.

Embarking on our trip. Note the darling decorations the trip leaders put on our bikes.

Entering Bryce National Park.

Looking into Bryce Canyon.
As Ebenezer Bryce said, "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow."

Another view into the canyon. In the foreground, the second formation from the right is Thor's Hammer.
Interestingly enough, Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all...technically, it's an eroding hillside.

My all-time favorite picture of the trip, looking up from partway to the bottom of Bryce Canyon.
At first, I didn't like the fact that there were people in the picture, but it does give the size of the canyon some context.

A shot from the rim of Bryce Canyon.

A naturally occurring sandstone sculpture that someone noticed looking just like a standing woman reading.

Another view up from the bottom. The stones aren't as colorful, but the contrast with the sky color is striking.

Even though it was mid-September, it was still extremely hot and dry in Southwestern Utah. So much so that really old wooden houses spontaneously combust on very rare occasions. We saw one completely engulfed.

Heading towards Kanab. The picture doesn't do the scene justice as, live, it looked like Tim (the little dot way up ahead on the right) was about to pedal right off a cliff.

About to enter Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim.

Wild turkeys in the park.

Mule deer in the park. Like most of the wildlife, it was way too tame for its own good.

Grand Canyon from the North Rim. Pictures cannot do the size of the canyon justice.

More of the Grand Canyon. The formation in the foreground on the right with the window on it is the Angel Fault viewpoint.

View of Angel Fault. This is one of the very few spots on the North Rim from which you can see the Colorado River, which formed the canyon. You can see it in two spots in the center of the picture. You can't tell here, but we could see rafts going down the river.

More of the Grand Canyon.

More of the Grand Canyon.

More of the Grand Canyon.

More of the Grand Canyon.

Another picture that doesn't do the scene justice. This is heading back across the 20 miles of 100°+ desert we'd crossed a few days earlier.
It looks green here, but it was dry and it was hot.

Picture from our hike in Zion. We started on that road below, and still had higher to climb.

Another picture from our hike in Zion.

Another picture from our hike in Zion.

This is a picture from the classic Zion hike, that being hiking up the Virgin River, in the river, through the Narrows. If you do the entire stretch, it's 17 miles.

This was a nice touch from the group at our last dinner together, especially since the groom didn't get any cake at his wedding.

The entire cast of characters. Brooks seems a little distracted...he's probably thinking about his next ride.

And now for the grand finale. Mister Excitement himself, Wayne Newton.

Part of his act is spending some twenty minutes singing while he goes through the crowd and shakes hands.

In closing, Wayne and I would like to say: "Danke Schoen".

A map of the route. It was 338 miles if you did the entire thing. It started at the green dot, ends at the red dot, and goes through the numbered yellow dots, which are where we stayed each night, in numerical order. Ignore the purple dot...I had to insert that to make the route come out correctly.