Dixie National Forest – Little Bitty Living

We went to the two grocery stores in Bryce Canyon City, Ruby’s and also Foster’s on Hwy. 12. BOY they sure are proud of their groceries….unbelievable prices! $8 for a box of cereal, $8 for those 1# propane cylinders, $8 for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, $1.99 for a soft drink. Definitely a good idea to bring everything you need with you to visit the national parks! Trouble is, we’re on our 3rd park in a row and we are running low on some stuff.

Hey have you seen the new Bounty paper towels with Dawn detergent embedded in them? It’s water-activated…great for washing dishes while camping! It’s quite expensive though, I saw a pack of 3 rolls at a “normal” grocery store back in Sedona for around $8. It wouldn’t be too bad if you could split the pack with a couple friends, it sure looks handy.

There is a big bad black cloud right over our heads, and it’s starting to thunder. Poor Princess Roxie hates that! She is snuggling with me on my bed….she only gets on the bed when she’s really scared.

Deb’s mouse and his wife have gone to a better place. We hope they haven’t left any children behind!

We took the park shuttle today to finish up seeing the points we missed yesterday. I loved this twisted old tree! tree

On the way back to camp we saw a pronghorn by the side of the road. With no pronghorns. He looked pretty scruffy, I think he’s shedding his winter coat.

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Tee hee, I did it again! Found us a really pretty free campsite in the Dixie National Forest, less than 2 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park! And only about 1 mile to the little town, with 3G Verizon and 4G ATT signals! Whip Hop!!! It is .7 mile from the pavement on a little one-lane dirt road but it’s a decent road. It’s not the site I was aiming for; that one was down a pretty muddy road and we opted not to chance getting stuck.

We had a rainy ride here but now it’s sunny and beautiful, though chilly. We’re in for some cold nights, in the low to mid-30’s. We came through a bit of the same rock formations as inside the park and I was so excited to see the hoodoos! Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about! This is Jeanne’s favorite park and I think it could be mine too.

Here are some other views from our camp:

And here’s a better photo of that flourite rock I bought, it’s so gorgeous with green and purple, yesterday photograph (or today’s either for that matter) doesn’t do it justice. DSCN5792

Deb has gone to town for some groceries and a mousetrap. She’s had a little hitchhiker for a while….the other day she dug around in the closet and found her shoes stuffed full of dog food!!! Mousie Must Go.

Finding This Campsite: Forest Road 090 is just 100 ft north of the ‘Welcome to Bryce Canyon National Park’ sign on Highway 63, about a mile north of the actual entry gates and pay station. The road will be on the west side of the Highway (and may be unmarked until you get further down the road, there is a cattleguard about 100 yds down this road). You actually turn into the scenic pullout parking lot and the little dirt road goes back into the woods from that. To our site: About .7 miles straight back on that little dirt road, N37.66698 W112.17327 Elevation 7772′ Another good site closer to the highway: N37.6579⁰ W112.16799⁰