OXWest-17 in a rental Sportsmobile

[Scoutman]

Made some alterations and picture changes to posts above. That's all for tonight. More to come....

 

[D90Rovin]

Thanks for taking the time to do your write up

 

[Scoutman]

Thanks for reading.

 

[razzman1]

Awesome trip and pictures!

What time of the year was your trip--mid-May? I would have thought with school still in, there wouldn't be as many people at the parks.

 

[Scoutman]

Awesome trip and pictures!

What time of the year was your trip--mid-May? I would have thought with school still in, there wouldn't be as many people at the parks.

It was this time last year. For us, it ended up being the week before the last week of school. We are in a private school and they are usually pretty good about trips. My son did a trip writeup for his class as his assignment but for the most part our school year was winding down anyway.

As for other people in the park, our concern was that it was the first day of the park being open for the season. My next post will show the line to get into the North Rim area. Not having been there before we didn't know how this compared to the 'busy' season and I imagine it was pretty tame compared.

 

[krick3tt]

Looking to your future additions to the post, the line in.

 

[Scoutman]

It's a nice scenic drive from Jacobs Lake to the North Rim visitors center. It takes a while but there's plenty to see. There was still snow on the ground in the shaded areas and we would occasionally see deer staying close to the treelines. Eventually we arrived at the entrance gate which was about 45 minutes from Jacobs Lake. We decided to pay for the annual National Park pass (and are now glad we did) since we expected to use it at Bryce Canyon the next day.

The line to get through the gate.


One of the nice things about traveling in a van such as this was the ability to make lunch or a snack just about anywhere without ever leaving the vehicle. That means when you're stuck in park traffic, you can fix a quick sandwich.



Almost there...

 

[AbleGuy]

Thx so much for sharing your adventure with the rest of us.

Reading your notes and viewing your pictures was my treat for the day today.

May the joy of this trip inspire your kiddos to continually grow their love of the outdoors. Their memories of trips with you like this will be one of the greatest gifts you both will ever give them

 

[Scoutman]

From here we made our way down to the visitors center and did the short hike out to Angels Point.

 

[Scoutman]

It was now early afternoon and we had over 3 hrs to drive to get to Bryce Canyon, find a spot to camp, and settle in. We took our last photos of the big crack in the ground and loaded up the van to head north.

Before leaving the parking lot we ran into Toby and crew from Scheelmann seats in their 4x4 sprinter vans. They were curious to see our rental and we wanted to see how the larger van looked. This was a good time to talk seats too since we have been looking at replacing the ones in my 06 Ram. More pictures and contact info exchanged and we were off.


One last stop at the North Rim General Store.


Some random scenic stretch break along the way.

 

[Scoutman]

We drove back roads around the Bryce area for probably an hour or so before we finally found what we were looking for. We knew that camping inside the park proper would be limited to the campgrounds so we chose to settle outside the park and hit the park early the next morning. Our spot was as close as we get to the rim (about 100 yrds away) as we could get without being in the park.


I need to find the pictures of the guy we met and the story that went with it. He was a hoot. To be continued...

 

[WU7X]

Nice writeup. Like seeing the NP stamp book in your daughter's hand. Great to start them early.

 

[Scoutman]

Been out of town on vacation this past week so now that I'm back in the saddle again I'll work on finishing this shortly.

 

[Scoutman]

Reserved for the story about John the biker.

 

[Scoutman]

We awoke pretty early the next morning so that we could catch pictures of the sunrise over Brice Canyon. I say we but really my wife was the one who got out to go take pictures. It was freezing cold and the propex heater in the van sure was nice. Our neighbor John probably didn't get much sleep given the temperatures that night and we notice that he was completely packed up and pedaling out of camp well before we got up.





Our plan for the day was to get moving and make the park around the time it opened for the day. Our National Parks pass got used again and after a walk-through the visitors center we were on our way through the park.








I still need to get the pictures my wife took.