we learn the difference between climate and weather.

Climate is the average precipitation and temperature over a minimum of 30 years.  Everything else is weather……

There was a lot of weather today in Bryce Canyon, which climate is high desert, and right now is the dry season.  In fact, the climate is so dry that they constantly remind you about hydration and the potential for forest fires….  And Joe, having learned about climate, did not bring any rain gear….

What we got today is weather – a lot of it – of the wet kind!  There were a lot of wet and cold German and French tourists at Bryce Canyon today!  (and at least one set of wet and cold Joe and Francoise tourists…..).  The Germans were being stoic and the French were complaining,  But then again, that’s the natural state of both groups, so maybe it had nothing to do with the weather…….  Joe and I did the best of a wet and cold situation and stopped at the different sites anyway – some of it was a bit of a challenge – for instance, the “Fairview” stop – which is supposed to provide broad and long views of the park and the valley looked like that.   

And the top of the park was in the clouds, making it not just foggy, but at over 9000 feet, very cold.  As we got down though, we did manage to admire the hoodoos formations.

 (Note that Joe bought a rain jacket at the visitor center...)

We also met these pretty antelopes…

 

We then headed south toward the Grand Canyon – about 300 miles away.  On the way, we stopped by to take pictures of the appropriately named red canyon,

 and of the river that flows from Bryce, which had turned exactly the same color as the hoodoos, because it was carrying so much sediment from the rain.

A lot of the drive looked like this:

But then the weather broke at last, as we neared the Glenn Canyon dam, and the rest of the drive was a lot more pleasant.

 The Glenn Canyon dam is a very impressive feat of engineering,  whether or not one approves of damming the Colorado river:

 There was a long detour because route 89 was closed, making an already long drive longer by 1 hour – but the alternate route –AZ 98 – was really beautiful, going through Navaho country, and the high Colorado plateau.  The countryside is simply grand, and beautiful and vast – and it goes through Navaho villages that are amazingly different from the life style we know…

We finally arrived at the Grand Canyon, where we are staying at a lodge right on the rim, but were just too tired (and hungry) to take pictures today – this will wait till tomorrow.  (we only stopped once on the road inside the park to take pictures of these elks).

Tomorrow, I’m hoping for some climate.  I’m tired of weather…..