Day 7 - A day for the ages

A number of years ago my friend Jim Morgan told me I should hike the Devil's Garden at Arches National Park before dawn and be deep into the hike when the sun rises. Mike and I met at 4 am this morning and were hiking by 5 am. It was one of the most memorable things I have ever done. We started off with flashlights but as our eyes became accustomed to the dark we shut them off and just walked using the predawn light. By the time the sun rise came at 6:14 am the beauty of the morning was beginning to hide.  My favorite picture from this morning:

Then put on your headphones or earbuds, go to a quiet place, and watch / listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8UZBi7qsRw

It was magical to me. I loved every second of it. See the moon in the first picture below:

Fitbit step count:16,821 steps before 8 am! Mike and I headed back to the hotel around 8 am (3 hours that just flew by) and left Moab for Bryce Canyon. 

When we got to Bryce we had forgotten that our good friend Mark Shaver used to work there in the early days until we saw this plaque:

Some of you may not know that in his youth Mark had a job emptying the garbage cans. But then he got promoted to Front Desk clerk and so we went to look at the front desk and lo and behold look what we found:

It was so cool to see the way they still honor Mark. 

After that fun we went to see the Bryce canyons and just like the Grand Canyon, pictures cant come near to doing it justice. 

After dinner in the Bryce Canyon Lodge we made our way to our hotels at Zion National Park (while watching the sun set) where we will start our day tomorrow.