On leaving Springdale, we stopped off in Grafton, a ghost town, once a Mormon settlement which had been inhabited from 1859 until the last people left in 1945. There was a cemetery where people buried included two girls killed by a broken swing, men killed by Navajo raiders as well as a whole family who died of diphtheria. There was also a church and several houses which had been used as a film set in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

 



 
We then drove along another state highway that goes through Zion NP, so remained open, and saw some fabulous views. There was a Ranger at the gate and he suggested sending all the idiot congressmen to the UK, but we said we had enough idiots already! We weren't meant to be stopping, but everyone was pulling over to take pictures, but it was hard to do justice to the scenery.  

   

   

We continued along another scenic route with great vistas until we got to the Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest. This wasn't on our initial itinerary, but we spent several hours hiking between the weirdly sculpted hoodoos, turrets, spires and pinnacles on the Bird's Eye Trail and the Pink Layers Trail.
 
 

 

 

   

We continued on to Bryce and checked in to a cute cottage at the Bryce Pines Motel. They told us that although the park is shut, the owners of Ruby's Inn own land up to the rim of Bryce Canyon, and there was a little roadway 'train' that they were running, taking people to look. We let the train take the strain then hiked round the rim and got some shots of Bryce, although not of the amphitheatre of hoodoos that it is famous for.



 


 
Next we are off to another local find that we would have passed by - Kodachrome Basin State Park, named in the 1940's for the revolutionary new colour film.