Anniversary in Bryce Canyon National Park

It was a great time to be around Bryce Canyon National Park not only because the rain had stopped and the temperatures were still amazing but July is our "celebration month". We have both of our anniversaries (date & wedding) and both of our birthdays to celebrate. Usually we try to do something special (to us) like going out to eat at a restaurant or doing something we normally wouldn't do (due to saving money). Being around Bryce Canyon gave us both of these options. 

I researched on Yelp the couple of restaurants around Bryce Canyon City to see where we would go for a Lovers Lunch on our anniversary. It came down to Ruby's Inn or The Lodge inside of Bryce Canyon National Park, both have lunch buffets. The reviews on Yelp for Ruby's Inn weren't great, not that The Lodge was any better, but we figured it would be fun to eat inside of the park, then do some hikes & sightseeing afterward.  The Lodge has a lunch buffet for $14.15 per person, but is pretty limited; a very small salad bar, a soup or two and hot & cold deli styled sandwiches. After we ate, we thought we would have been better off ordering from the menu but we came for the experience and we were full, with a sandwich to spare, (I had bags in my backpack...hey, I paid for it).

After our Lovers Lunch we drove to the furthest point in the park, Rainbow Point. We figured we would work our way from the back of the park to the front, that way if we wanted to come back in we wouldn't have to drive so far. The drive from the entrance to Rainbow Point is about 18 miles.
I'm sure there are amazing lightning shows when it storms here, you could see for miles and miles and with the dark clouds looming over the mountains in the distance we could see why they called this Rainbow Point...I'm sure they're quite spectacular here.

If you've never been to Bryce Canyon or seen pictures, it's a very interesting place. It has hoodoos, spires, fins, canyons, windows, bridges, arches...it's like all the parks combined into one awesome sight. This was our first look at the incredible forces of nature that have taken place over thousands of years and it's simply breathtaking. I hope you enjoy the pictures, because there will be a lot of them!

Next on the map was Ponderosa Point at 8,904 feet.

Next up: Agua Canyon at 8,800 feet.

Working our way down to the next point was Black Birch Canyon at 8,750 feet.

We did a lot more sightseeing than hikes, so most of our time was spent driving from one overlook to another. We still had a great day though, there is so much to take in at Bryce Canyon.
I feel like I should have some kind of explanation for the pictures but I feel the pictures do themselves enough justice...so excuse me for not writing more in this blog post, I just thought you'd like to see lots of great pictures instead of me blabbing away. 
So here are more view points we were able to see...

Here you will see Natural Bridge, even though technically an Arch

I will do a part two to this post next. There was just way too much great stuff to see and lots of pictures were taken so I've got to do more digging to get the best shots for you!!

'til next time...
PEACE