Trip Day 12 – Friday 26th August
As we leave a damp, misty Bryce the sun starts to shine and the sky brightens as we ride along Scenic Highway 12 through Red Canyon.
We stop for breakfast at the biker friendly Galaxy Diner and bike shop….which is not on any account a Harley shop.
Passing through Kanab on our way to the Grand Canyon North Rim….there’s a Wild West festival on this weekend and we are staying here tonight! Yeehah!
We’ve got about 70 miles of this to the Grand Canyon.
Once we enter the park, things improve on the approach to the canyon. There are buffalo here, but unfortunately we don’t see any today. I wonder if the Grand Canyon will impress me after all the amazing sights we’ve seen so far in the Canyonlands?
I’ll soon find out..
The first glimpse looks promising…
In its entirety it is quite impressive….
The view from Bright Angel Point. The sky and distant views are a little hazy due to air pollution from the forest fires raging over in California. There’s a bit more definition in black & white.
This chap is Brighty the Burro. He was one of the many burros abandoned by prospectors when they came looking, unsuccessfully, for their fortune in the area. He was befriended by the children of the owner of the first tourist accommodation built on the North Rim. He used to carry water up to the accommodation from a spring in the canyon below & his reward was a stack of pancakes each day!
We travel a bit further round the park to the Point Imperial which is the highest point on the North Rim.
We head back out of the park, no buffalo to be seen but we do see a coyote trotting alongside the road complete with his lunch .
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We stop for fuel only on the way back to Kanab. I’m not sure if the goods listed at the gas station are listed in order of importance? Interesting that ‘gas’ isn’t one of them?!
Looks like the Wild West show is well underway when we get back to town.
It would seem that Kanab is a bit like Cowboy Hollywood, with many old western movie stars plaques located all along main street in recognition of all the movies that have been filmed in this area …. Including one of my all-time favourites, ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’. We even find out later on that there’s a tour around the filming locations for it the next day… sadly we don’t have the time to pull this in as we have our own tour to do….
We check in at the hotel, quickly get changed and head off to explore. There’s plenty happening… including music from some chaps from Preston that Keith had told us about..
I had to be a bit discreet taking this pic – I didn’t want to upset him or the rifle in the holster strapped to his leg. His back patch clearly stating his views on US gun law!
We head over to the Wild West show. Just in time for a talk about cowboys and their horsemanship – or the lack of it from this ol’ dude… He’s Lee Anderson, a cowboy historian and excellent horseman who gives an interesting presentation about the history of the cowboy and horsemanship, ably assisted by his partner ‘Concho’ a retired racehorse that he’s retrained by classical Spanish riding techniques. http://mycowboyheroes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lee-anderson.html
We were also treated to a gun slinging display by the pistol packing ‘Johnny Hotshot’…. I daren’t take any pics of him in case he spotted me…. It was one of those shows where you don’t want to draw attention to yourself or else he’d pick on you. He was very big on audience participation, so we all sat there whoopin' an' a hollerin' and clapping along to the stunts..... and those that didn’t were publicly humiliated….
You know how annoying it is when someone really tall comes to sit in front of you and spoil your view at a show? It’s ten times worse when they’re wearing cowboy hats…. But do you really want to ask a man with a gun to move to the side a bit??
This is what happens when you get a bit lippy with a cowboy – as Paul found out!
We bumped into the ‘stars of the show’ later that evening… the boys got all excited & want to hold Johnny Hotshots’ pistol, it was quite heavy apparently ....
Meanwhile I had a nice chat about ponies with Mr Lee Anderson.
As we leave a damp, misty Bryce the sun starts to shine and the sky brightens as we ride along Scenic Highway 12 through Red Canyon.
We stop for breakfast at the biker friendly Galaxy Diner and bike shop….which is not on any account a Harley shop.
Passing through Kanab on our way to the Grand Canyon North Rim….there’s a Wild West festival on this weekend and we are staying here tonight! Yeehah!
We’ve got about 70 miles of this to the Grand Canyon.
Once we enter the park, things improve on the approach to the canyon. There are buffalo here, but unfortunately we don’t see any today. I wonder if the Grand Canyon will impress me after all the amazing sights we’ve seen so far in the Canyonlands?
I’ll soon find out..
The first glimpse looks promising…
In its entirety it is quite impressive….
The view from Bright Angel Point. The sky and distant views are a little hazy due to air pollution from the forest fires raging over in California. There’s a bit more definition in black & white.
This chap is Brighty the Burro. He was one of the many burros abandoned by prospectors when they came looking, unsuccessfully, for their fortune in the area. He was befriended by the children of the owner of the first tourist accommodation built on the North Rim. He used to carry water up to the accommodation from a spring in the canyon below & his reward was a stack of pancakes each day!
We travel a bit further round the park to the Point Imperial which is the highest point on the North Rim.
We head back out of the park, no buffalo to be seen but we do see a coyote trotting alongside the road complete with his lunch .
We stop for fuel only on the way back to Kanab. I’m not sure if the goods listed at the gas station are listed in order of importance? Interesting that ‘gas’ isn’t one of them?!
Looks like the Wild West show is well underway when we get back to town.
It would seem that Kanab is a bit like Cowboy Hollywood, with many old western movie stars plaques located all along main street in recognition of all the movies that have been filmed in this area …. Including one of my all-time favourites, ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’. We even find out later on that there’s a tour around the filming locations for it the next day… sadly we don’t have the time to pull this in as we have our own tour to do….
We check in at the hotel, quickly get changed and head off to explore. There’s plenty happening… including music from some chaps from Preston that Keith had told us about..
I had to be a bit discreet taking this pic – I didn’t want to upset him or the rifle in the holster strapped to his leg. His back patch clearly stating his views on US gun law!
We head over to the Wild West show. Just in time for a talk about cowboys and their horsemanship – or the lack of it from this ol’ dude… He’s Lee Anderson, a cowboy historian and excellent horseman who gives an interesting presentation about the history of the cowboy and horsemanship, ably assisted by his partner ‘Concho’ a retired racehorse that he’s retrained by classical Spanish riding techniques. http://mycowboyheroes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lee-anderson.html
We were also treated to a gun slinging display by the pistol packing ‘Johnny Hotshot’…. I daren’t take any pics of him in case he spotted me…. It was one of those shows where you don’t want to draw attention to yourself or else he’d pick on you. He was very big on audience participation, so we all sat there whoopin' an' a hollerin' and clapping along to the stunts..... and those that didn’t were publicly humiliated….
You know how annoying it is when someone really tall comes to sit in front of you and spoil your view at a show? It’s ten times worse when they’re wearing cowboy hats…. But do you really want to ask a man with a gun to move to the side a bit??
This is what happens when you get a bit lippy with a cowboy – as Paul found out!
We bumped into the ‘stars of the show’ later that evening… the boys got all excited & want to hold Johnny Hotshots’ pistol, it was quite heavy apparently ....
Meanwhile I had a nice chat about ponies with Mr Lee Anderson.