Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks – Snowbird, Utah to Mesquite, Nevada 6/1/2013

JUNE 1, 2013 (Saturday)

Today was moving day from our cute little “home” at Iron Blosam to Mesquite, Nevada. We were told by some people at Iron Blosam that we should see Bryce Canyon on the way down to Mesquite. We were also told that we should see Cedar Breaks.  We woke up early and were on the road by 8 AM.

(Mike here, just have to edit a little bit. I had a gout attack and was trying to limit my walking mileage. That made Edie the foot person for this move. She left the room at 7:45 to go get a cart and severely admonished me to be quiet as people were surely still sleeping. I replied “yes dear” and earnestly tried as I finished gathering up all our stuff by the front door and checking the room. After a few minutes I heard the most God awful racket coming from the direction of the elevators. It got louder and louder as it approached our door. I opened the door to find a red faced Edie pushing an empty tub cart. She sheepishly said, “so much for being quiet.” I laughed. It was a lot quieter on the return trip when full.)

We saw the turn off to Cedar Breaks and took it. The drive up to almost 11,000 feet. It was so grand and beautiful. Just an enormous vista with reds, pinks, whites, dark purples, grays, so spectacular. We stopped at a couple of the outlooks and it was absolutely breathtaking, in a place with very little breath anyway. We then drove on to Bryce Canyon National Park. 

Even more beautiful. We drove the whole distance to the end (I think Rainbow outlook) and then on the way back stopped at five or six of the outlooks to take pictures and marvel at mother nature’s beauty. It got almost overwhelming with too much sensory overload.

When we left Bryce Canyon, we did a little backtracking back to Cedar City and then down Highway 15. We stopped in St. George for dinner and then headed into Mesquite. Long day, almost 11 hours in the car. We try to only do five or six a day but we really wanted to see Cedar Breaks and Bryce in one swoop without having to go back. 

(Mike here, have to add what a spectacular highway between St. George and Mesquite. A narrow canyon, tortured, tossed and turned by nature, with walls so high, just a hell of a place. I used to survey in my youth and could not imagine what the survey, and construction crews went through to build this stretch of road.)

Mesquite is much larger than I thought it would be. When we left highway 15, meandered thru Mesquite and got to our turn into the timeshare driveway, we were a little shocked because the timeshare looks like it’s being demolished, but it was down further. We are on the third floor (which we like). The unit itself is nice, little kitchen area, full kitchen that is nicely stocked, nice large bedroom with a sitting area and a makeup area. The living room is good sized with a hide-a-bed couch, nice bathroom. Plenty of closet space. The view is very nice looking out into a lovely courtyard with lovely lavender colored trees in bloom. We plan on exploring the complex tomorrow, pool, etc. As far as activities here, nothing to speak of. They are somehow affiliated with the casino across the street so all the activities are casino related. 

The bad part of the timeshare was the internet. I had called to make sure they had internet here and was told they were getting a new system in and yes, they had it. Well, no, they don’t. If we want internet, we have to go outside of our room and go all the way down the hall (mind you it’s 100 degrees outside right now). Very inconvenient. We called and were told there was nothing they could do. We’ll deal with it. (At McDonald’s as we write and post this.)