This morning's schedule is much the same as yesterday's; breakfast is from 7am and we're leaving at 8 from just outside the rooms. As seems to be the norm the breakfast buffet contains a lot of bread, eggs, bacon and potato. It's cold and grey, and there's a band of darker clouds just behind the building we've been staying in. As we start to pull out of the parking lot there's some form of precipitation falling from the sky. First snow? No, it's apparently a light hail / ice shower. But maybe it counts as heavy snow if you think creatively. It's followed by rain as we make our way back into Bryce Canyon National Park where we stop at Sunset Point. There's time to wander around and take photos but it's freezing out this morning so I find that keeping my hands in my pockets is a good idea. I'll need to find some gloves. The light this morning is a lot more orange than yesterday afternoon and it highlights the colouring of the hoodoos spectacularly. On the way back onto the bus Kerry, Pina and I pass a French tour group who attempt to convince us we should join their group. We decline, but mention it to JP as we get back on our bus in an attempt at bargaining but come away empty.
Our plan for the day is to drive back through Red Canyon and over the Wasatch Mountains (which are technically part of the Rocky Mountains but they're treated separately) and up to Salt Lake City. Just outside the Bryce Canyon area we do come across our first legitimate snow of the tour, but it again changes to rain and loiters this way for the next hour or so of our drive. The rain finds a leak in the roof of the bus just over Pina's head (who today is sitting in the front right seat) which is solved with the use of some towels, but it's stopped by the time we stop for a restroom / coffee break at around 10ma in Beaver, UT. Macca's have really nice baked cookies (I like the choc chip better than the oatmeal).
There's a lot of sage brush along the way (where there aren't farms with other vegetation). Apparently it's a pretty nutritious plant (no, I didn't eat any) and this is one of the reasons the area used to have a large number of deer and buffalo in the area. For those not interested in watching the scenery out the windows we had Forrest Gump on DVD, and got almost all the way through it before stopping at Provo for a lunch break. There's a bunch of tech companies in the area (I think it was Novell we passed just before stopping at the mall). The hour break was long enough for me to have a quick lunch (chatting with Trudy and Hans today) before heading off to look for gloves. I found some (and a scarf - all on sale) in JCPenney, which is also where I re-ran into Trudy and Hans.
We then headed back onto the interstate for the 45 minute drive to Salt Lake City but detoured past it to visit the Great Salt Lake. The lake smells a bit funky (and "tastes like it smells" if you listen to Andy's opinion). There's also some fairly large mining operations in the area - across the interstate is a giant copper mine.
We have about a 90 minute break around the hotel area in Salt Lake City before we're picked up again and driven around town to the Capitol building and Temple Square. Apparently there are actual city blocks which the Mormons have bought from the city - I believe around the mall area as they're planning on building a roof over it. We're walked around the Temple Square area by a couple of guides and are shown the auditorium and the Tabernacle, and the outside of the Temple (as non-Mormons aren't allowed into a Mormon Temple once it's been consecrated). Dinner is at the Lion House Pantry (which has fabulous rolls with yummy honey butter) before we get a tour of Brigham Young's house next door. We get back to the hotel around 8.30pm and as we're getting off the bus JP asks if we're heading out again - Kerry, Pina and I all indicate we're not really planning to, and despite my intention from this afternoon of wandering to the brewhouse a few blocks down the road I end up calling it a night once I get back to my room.
