Driving to the Bryce Canyon area was another experience in mountain road driving.  We stopped off at Moqui Cave, a cave with a cavernous interior that has been used for various purposes over the years, from a barroom (in Mormon Utah) to its current use as a museum.  Various Hollywood actors have stopped by and left signatures on photos, since the cave is just outside Kanab, a small town with an outdoor movie set left over from the early Western black and white film days.  Inside the cave are exhibits of rare rocks (including some with fossils embedded), Native American artifacts (including spearheads and arrowheads for sale), some rocks that glow in the dark when exposed to black light, and even an old wanted poster for Butch Cassidy.

Rocks with fossils embedded

Florescent rocks under black light

Spearheads and arrowheads

Dinosaur footprint impressions

Look closely for actors' signatures

Look closely for actors' signatures

We are staying at Ruby's Inn RV Park, part of a multi-acre establishment that includes many lodges and similar motel buildings, cabins, and even tepees to stay in. It has the largest RV slots that any of us have ever seen, and they are clean and neat.  The office is over to the general store area, a long walk from here.  Very clean and efficient but impersonal and detached.

Huge slot for RVs at Ruby's

Once we got to the campground and were settled, we got into the car and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park.  It is just down the road and not nearly as crowded as what we have been seeing in other parks.  Perhaps at over 8,000 feet in altitude people are not as eager to come here.  We casually shot some photos with our phones, thinking that today would have similar excellent light.

Betty overlooking Bryce amphitheater in afternoon

The hoodoos of Bryce

For size perspective of hoodoos, notice people below

This morning we drove in the dark to Sunrise Point inside Bryce Canyon National Park to photograph the sunrise at 7:04 am.  Temperatures were in the 30's and 40's as we awaited the special moment.  The cloud banks were so thick that the appointed time came and went without sight of the sun.  After waiting quite a while, we did see the sun rise above a cloud bank, so we got to take photos of that.  We walked back to the car to put away our camera gear, then went into the Bryce Canyon Lodge for breakfast.  Upon rising from the table after the meal, my right knee decided to act up again, likely due to postponing everything (including taking our daily pain meds) until returning to the motorhome.  With Betty's hip and my knee acting up, we cancelled our planned horseback ride through the park tomorrow.  Very disappointing, but one more reason to return here some day.  Since our return to the motorhome, the weather has been raining on and off.  Tonight we have a Western theme dinner show at 6:30 pm, so I am working on photos and this blog until then.

The sun peeps through clouds this morning