Wild-West Road-Trip: from Moab to Bryce and the Fourth of July Fireworks

I’m going to try my best not to complain about thela internet because... bacon, lol. We had a great day. It was a traveling day as we made our way from Moab to Bryce Canyon City. Apparently, the city was only established about ten years ago, which is kinda funny to me since it's been here for so much longer. We all got up fairly early and didn’t have to rush to be anywhere. I made bacon, eggs, and coffee on the camp stove while Jen made pancakes on the range in the RV. During that time of day, the weather is nice and cool, the sounds of the camp are quiet, and nobody cares if I go outside in my pajamas.

After breakfast, I washed the dishes while Jen and the kids straightened up the RV and prepped everything for the drive to Bryce. If you haven’t already imagined, anything that isn’t secure in the cabin of the van is free to fall all over the place when you’re moving. It’s easy to see why we wear seatbelt when a gallon jug of water or a cooler full of ice is sliding across the floor every time we have to turn. Also, just for my dad, I’m driving very well, thanks. Nice and easy, not too fast, and always considerate of my passengers.

Around lunchtime, we reached Fishlake National Forest and Forsyth Reservoir. There was a lookout point, which was really just a glorified widening in the road where I could pull over safely, and we stopped to make lunch. Honestly, this sounds like all we do is wake up, eat, drive, hike, eat, shower, and sleep. I want you to know that’s not completely true. For the record, we don’t shower that often.

Anyway, lunch included chicken for the kids and PB&J for Jen and me. I make a mean PB&J. If you think that goes without saying, you just don’t know. There’s a real art to getting the ratio of peanut-butter to jelly just right. If you use too much of either, you’ll ruin your life.

Moving on… the reservoir just stood out on the landscape and I thought it would be good to photograph it since I won’t really have anything else to show you today except pictures of bacon. While I was moving around to find a decent perspective, I noticed that there were some animal remains in the field not too far from our spot. Well, it’s not every day that I stumble across something like that, so I decided to get a few pictures. Looking back, I think I should have explored more perspectives, but I’m not gonna lie. I was wearing the wrong shoes. I did not want to be hopping around the area in my sandals and find any other surprises. If I’d been wearing my hiking boots, then maybe…

So, I figured out that it was a deer. And I’d never been so close to bones bleached by the sun. It was actually very intriguing. Anyway, I thought it was cool… right up until I found a fur-covered hoof. That was kinda gross. At least it didn’t smell anymore.

After another couple hours of driving on some really awful roads, we arrived at our campsite and I took a nap. We went to a few supply stores to buy milk and a new H2O hose to replace the leaky one that came with our rental. The new one works well, which is good since I really dislike wasting water.

After I wrote the first part of this set, Evan and I went to see the fireworks display. If you hadn’t heard, there’s a wildfire near Bryce and the smoke is very visible, especially during sunset. I wanted to share these with you just for the color, though. Sunsets are pretty magical:)

This shot of the fence post might be my favorite from the set...

We found a good spot to see the fireworks and I was able to test my Platypod as a tripod substitute. I’ll spoil it for you and just say that the thing worked so well. It was easy to setup and very lightweight. Perfect, really.

Anyway, that's all for the setup. Here are some of the fireworks display.

It was a great July 4th, and I’m really glad that I got to share it with all of you, even from so far away. Thank you for reading this and for all the encouragement. Take care!

- Wayne