To Bryce Canyon with my Valentines
 

For Valentine's day I took my wife, AnnaRae, her 87 year old mother, LaRae, our 93 year old neighbor, Betsy, and Pepe to Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Capitol Reef National Park in Old Henry.

Here we are starting out with a presentation of a rose to each (including Pepe) that, after the presentation and this picture, were mounted in Old Henry where the ladies could look a them the whole trip. Made the whole trip a little more "festive".

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AnnaRae had the challenge of trying to quilt, which she spent most of the daylight hours doing, with Pepe in her lap - his favorite spot - while Betsy had the challenge of watching the GPS with her diminishing eye sight.

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First stop was Big Rock Candy Mountain where "The lemonade springs and the bluebird sings." The top picture is the winter one we just took - not very "Candy Mountain" looking compared to the bottom one we took in April 2010 on our Route 66 trip.

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Across the highway from Big Rock Candy Mountain was this quaint old military portable bridge I thought some of you that served in the military might remember. They actually had a pile of them nearby.

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In Junction, Utah was this old service station I thought was pretty cool.

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A shot of Old Henry's dash as we headed to Bryce Canyon.

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One of two tunnels in Red Canyon just before Bryce Canyon. Straight out of the movie "Cars".

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Just before we got to Bryce Canyon we hit the summit and passed a fairly unique summit sign. I decided to do a U-turn on the highway to go back and get a picture but underestimated the depth of the snow on the shoulder of the road and ended up stuck down the embankment. I sat there for a minute after trying to "rock" out without success thinking about how long it would take for AAA to get a tow truck to us so far from anywhere - not a happy proposition. Decided, instead, to just stand by the side of the road until someone stopped to pull me out. Wasn't a minute before this guy pulled up in his pickup and offered to pull me out which he did. But, I hooked my end of the strap over the bumper bracket underneath such that, after he pulled me out, the hook was stuck and wouldn't come off so we went the rest of the way to Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon with the strap wrapped around the new fog lamps.

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All of that just to go back and get a picture of this summit sign.

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Ruby's Inn is our favorite winter stay at Bryce Canyon. It is a very historic lodge dating back to 1916 when Ruby Syrett first pitched a tent at the rim of Bryce Canyon for tourists to stay in. http://www.rubysinn.com/rubys-history.html

In hopes of having better luck starting Old Henry in the cold morning than I had on the Milford trip 6 weeks ago I replaced the 40 weight "molasses" that I had in the engine with 10W-30 which worked great in my one test with the car left outside the garage one night in 16° temperature - started right up. That was the predicted low at Bryce Canyon so I thought all would be well. But, just in case, I brought along the 12 volt battery from my camping trailer fully charged and even kept it in our room to keep warm all night - just in case.

Well, in the morning as I climbed into Old Henry for the "big start" I saw that it was 18° on the thermometer just above the mirror. So, optimistically, I turned on the key, pulled out the choke, gave the gas pedal a couple of pumps, and pressed the started button only to find out that I was stopped dead in my tracks by stupid human error! Yup. Here's what had happened. I had recently installed a "kill switch" just under that thermometer (you can just see the bottom end of the switch) to shut down the engine quicker in the event of an emergency stop when I had my throttle knob pulled out as cruise control that would take more time to push in. That switch runs a relay that powers the ignition switch and all that runs off of it. Great safety measure. BUT, I have to remember to turn the switch off every time I remove the key. Although the relay draws very little current, with a battery at 18° every little draw counts. Well, you've probably guessed by now that on this night of all nights, when I needed every cold cranking amp available, I left that dang switch on. So, no starty from battery. Ah, but, I have a backup warm 12 volt battery in the room that will cover just fine. Right? So, I bring it out, hook my heavy duty jumper cables to my battery and run them over to the other battery by my door with the positive hooked up so I can hold the started button down while I clamp on the negative. Well, it worked once to start up the engine to run just a few seconds before dying. It never worked again. At first I thought that it might just be the deep cycle trailer battery that wasn't enough. Then a guy from Germany (yes Bryce Canyon is an international attraction - most tourists from Asia and Europe - our waitress was from Bulgaria) came with his vehicle and we tried starting it with his battery in his car with his engine running. For some reason we couldn't get juice to go through the cables no matter how much we wiggled and jiggled them. Fortunately, it was a nice sunny, although cold, day. The parking lot was clear of ice and snow and had a very slight slope one direction. So, with a little short push Old Henry started right up.

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After breakfast in the lodge, drove to Sunset Point, one of the grandest views of one section of Bryce Canyon. http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7d5614fb.jpg

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Then we headed east on scenic Highway 12, called by Road and Track Magazine one of the 7 most scenic drives in the United States, that is now part of the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/grand...escalante.html

If you look close you'll see Old Henry on the road in these pictures. I especially like this one because those snow-capped mountains in the distance are the "Henry Mountains" - really.

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From there we went over Boulder Mountain on the way to Capital Reef National Park. Up past the evergreen timber line to where only quaking aspens grow and, of course, snow - in the winter.

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Then back down the other side to Capitol Reef National Park http://www.nps.gov/care/index.htm

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Our last stop before heading home was the quaint little gas station in Loa, Utah (settled by Hawaiians, Pop. 572) where the ladies got to use the "outside" toilets with the little 2' wide door around the side of the gas station. (Door seen through the window of this shot.) Pepe wondered, "What about a last little "squirt" for me too?" So, I took him around back and we were all set to head for home.

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Total distance 527 miles.

It was a journey of patience - the ladies' patience while I took my pictures and fixed the car and my patience while they took their sweet time doing absolutely everything else. Even so, it was darn well worth the effort.

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For any that might be interested in my other road trips here they are:

Milford, Utah in December 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93137

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080&highlight=nevadaho

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

What a great post! I wish I could share this with my Route 66 friends.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Thank you Prof. Henry:
Great people, great car, & great photos.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Old Henry's road trip reports are always the best. Credit to the old ladies for having the pluck to go on these outings. Credit to you too for having the pluck to do it.

Mart.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry,
That sure was a great trip and scenic travelog. Driving these old Fords sure is fun and sometimes an adventure. How did you get the picture of your Ford way down the mountain on the road??

Enjoyable post, thanks

John

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

been there a couple of years ago unbelivable place great trip ol henry you get out and drive that car

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

We were out there last August. Beautiful country. We rented a house in Kanab for a couple of weeks and used it as a base to go to the North Rim, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef. We also visited Brigham's Young's Summer home. Thanks for the pictures.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry,
You sure have a way with words and pictures. Breathtaking scenery! Thank you for sharing this great trip. That old Ford sure serves you well.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

great photos....looks like you need more snow up there....hopefully more will come.....Mike

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Yeah. It's weird that we have had more snow in the valleys this winter than we need but less in the mountains where we really need it.

Left my wife up top to take the pictures while I drove down. She mostly took video that turned out too low of resolution to be worth looking at. I was never more than 5 minutes below her.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry, that gas station in Junction is one of my favorites. Wayno

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Darn! :( I totally forgot about you when we passed through Salina TWICE! :mad:
Hopefully next time. :o

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry, another great adventure report with beautiful pictures. Thank you for posting! You should put all these trips, stories and pictures, into a book. Maybe call it something like..... "The Adventures of Old Henry and Me" or something like that :).

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

I definitely enjoy your travelogues. I totally agree with JM. With your narrative and pictures a book could be in the making. "The Adventures of Old Henry and Me" is a perfect title. Youhave taken me to many places I want to visit.
With your kill switch problem maybe you should install a light to tell you the ignition switch is still on.
How is the axel fix doing?

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Great stuff Professor. Beautiful scenery. I sure hope the ladies enjoyed it as much as you and Pepe.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

I started the book today.

That's a great idea. I will definitely do that.

Thanks.

Totally replaced everything between the transmission and the tires and it works great. Thanks for asking.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Thanks Henry - great photos and stories.

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry, we'll get it sometime. :rolleyes: Next time I head your way I'll try to remember to holler first. Wayno

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

Henry,

Well done! Seeing Bryce through your images is the next best thing to being there.

Phil

Re: To Bryce Canyon with my Valentine's
 

great pictures! thank you for shareing......