Horse riding into the depths of the “canyon” this morning. I think the last time I rode a horse was when I was about seven! This little trip was easy as we were all following-the-leader along a single file trail, and the horses were all on autopilot. I’ve always found horse riding a little strange, mainly because it’s been an activity done in the English countryside where I’d always rather be mountain biking or walking – so not something I’d ever pay to do as a “punter”. Here, too, it felt a bit strange to be a “tourist” on a packaged trip – but it did make me think it would be interesting to do a multi-day backcountry trip where having horses meant you could carry a lot more than if you were just backpacking. Maybe somewhere in South America, into the Andes. With llamas.
To get to Zion early enough to find a camp spot, we decided to spend a second night in Bryce and leave sharpish in the morning. Even though we’d not been into the southern end of the park, we all felt a bit overwhelmed by loads of people, and wanted some down-time not driving around or sightseeing, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing in camp, then headed into Bryce Canyon City for a cheap, quick and dirty meal at a diner, and a wander around the rock shop.
Rock shops eh. These places are crazy – selling every kind of rock you can imagine, in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some are “raw” that you get cut open for you once you’ve bought them, a bit like a scratch card – not knowing what’s going to be inside. What do you do with a 10 kilo lump of rock? Some of them are decorative and I could see them perhaps being a tourist’s souvenir, but many are really just lumps of rock. If you’re a rock collector, would you buy your collection bit by bit in places like this? Maybe, since it’s so arid round here, people don’t have plant gardens, they just have rock gardens? So a rock shop is a bit like a garden centre. In amongst all the glitter there were some pretty cool sandblasted shapes made from an Arizona sandstone, but I’ve never really been into rock buying so they stayed on the shelf.
Road and Ocean 