First of all a ‘funny’ tale!! Peggy who owns the B&B we are staying at here in Panguitch was telling us this morning a story about when she first located from California to Panguitch, many years ago.

Her friend had a very old cocker spaniel dog that went missing one day. Peggy helped in the search but they were unable to find it so they called in the local tracker who also went in search of the animal but returned with the sad news that the dog had been taken by a mountain lion!  Then, he turned and in the distance saw a coyote and instantly and in front of Peggy and her friend, shot it dead! He did that because there’s a bounty in the area and if you kill a coyote and cut off the two ears, you get a reward of $50!!  Peggy knew her life would never be the same again!!!!!!!

Can you see Thor’s hammer to the right of centre?

Ground Squirrel

Old car in Bryce Canyon today

What the modern day hiker should be wearing!

So, today we did the other half of Bryce Canyon and did two hikes. One was the famous Navajo Loop trail that starts at 7800 feet above sea level, drops down to 7400 feet and then you have to climb back up again!! Luckily, a lot of it was in the shade. We did it nice and early before it got really hot. Our second hike was at 9115 feet on the Bristlecone Trail but this one was not so steep on the climbs. Some Bristlecones have been found to be between 4000 and 5000 years old!!

We also had a lucky day seeing deer, fawns, chipmunks and ground squirrels.  The difference, for those who like to know these things, between a chipmunk and a ground squirrel is that a chipmunk has stripes on its head and a ground squirrel does not!!  This is what another traveller told us so I’m open to correction!