Eating dinner on the edge of a cliff

Last night was by far our coldest night. Not only were we sleeping on, and around snow, but the temperature dipped below -15 degrees Celsius, probably about -18. We had gone well below the comfort factor of our sleeping bags, and into the survival factor. We had many layers of clothes on, and managed to make it through the night relatively comfortable. Luckily we were staying at this campsite for two nights, so we didn't have to pack up the tents! We have experience many cold mornings. We generally have cereal and milk for breakfast. On cold mornings this becomes quite painful. The milk freezes, and your hands become extremely cold. This morning was particularly cold, and we didn't really fancy suffering through breakfast. We went to the one place in the park that served breakfast, Valhalla Pizza, and got a breakfast burrito and a hot drink. It was much nicer than frozen milk and freezing hands!! We then went to the visitors centre to decide what we would do for the day. We decided on a walk that would gives us an appreciation for the park. We did the Navaho trail down into the canyon, and then the Peekaboo loop around the canyon, then the Navaho back out again.

It was a great walk, and definitely gave us a great perspective of the park. The walk probably took us about 3 hours all up, with plenty of stops for photos. The park itself is completely different to anywhere else we had been. The rock is a orange limestone, that has eroded to form a canyon with many pillars of different shapes and sizes. The park in winter looks amazing, with snow on the tops of the pillars, and really made the orange colour more dominant.








The ranger at the visitors centre recommended going to Paria view at sunset. The road to this point is closed, meaning it is much less crowded. We decided we would buy some take away pizzas from Valhalla Pizzas, then walk down to this point and watch the sunset while enjoying dinner. It was only about a 20 minute walk to the view point, and we were the only ones there. We set up dinner, and the camera, however the sky soon clouded over, and there was no sunset. Despite the lack of sunset, it was great to enjoy a nice dinner with such as amazing view.



It was a really nice day exploring this very special and unique place!