West - Day Twenty-Three - July 15, 2005

It just seemed to get hotter and hotter each day. I drove along routes 98 and 89 aiming towards Bryce Canyon. Along the way, I stopped at the Navajo National Monument, the Glen Canyon Dam (above), and the Grand Staircase-Escalante NM (one of only 15 NM's managed by the Bureau of Land Management rather than the Park Service). The temperature stayed well above 100F most of the time.

Finally, the elevation kicked in and by the time I got to Bryce (about 8,000 feet in elevation), the temperature was back down in the '80's. I went to a fascinating ranger program in the evening, all about astronomy and protecting/saving the dark night skies so we can continue to see the stars in future generations. Bryce is rated #2 in terms of clearest skies at NPs. The #1 park is Great Basin in Nevada which I went to back in the beginning of this journey. With all the artificial light we create, it is amazing how much less of the night sky can be seen across much of the U.S. compared to only 20 years ago. They've only recently started to focus on this part of the NPs that needs to be protected.