Cannonville, Utah

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Our campsite is in Cannonville, a 20 minute drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. 

View from our campsite 

The following photos are from a hike on Mossy Cave Trail. You may notice that there are no photos of the "Mossy Cave".  The photos are dark due to overcast conditions.  Better cave photos in Canyonlands: Needles blog! 

 

Completed in 1892, pioneers using primitive tools laboured for more than two years to complete the the Tropic Ditch Canal to bring water to the semi-arid area below.  To reduce the amount of digging, they planned the route using natural water courses whenever possible, including the normally dry wash, known as "Water Cannon" in this photo.  The lives of families living in and around the town of Tropic still benefit from the efforts of those pioneers.

     The following photos are of "Fairyland" in Bryce Canyon National Park.
                                      http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/fairyland.htm
From an interpretative sign: The cliff is retreating at an average of one foot every sixty years. Eventually, the edge of the overlook will slide to the canyon floor and wash toward the Paria River.

Rain started to fall, in earnest, as we returned from the Mossy Cave Trail. For our Fairyland photos, the rain paused. Then, the clouds opened again as we drove to a store at the park entrance. A funny conversation with visitors from Philadephia about some beer not having an alcohol percentage displayed.  The clerk confirmed our guess that if the alcohol content is not displayed, then it is assumed it is 3.2%, the maximum percentage for grocery stores in Utah.  There are some exceptions made for micro-breweries. We decided on a Hefeweizen brewed in Salt Lake City, Utah by Squatters Craft Beers.