Deer Valley & Bryce Canyon in the snow

This morning we hurried our way up to try out the groomed trails we spotted last week at the Deer Valley Recreation Area up Cedar Canyon.  We were on the trail by a little after 9:00.  It was really pretty and we didn't see anyone while we were out.  There were some pretty steep down hills, and we were glad no one saw us when we crashed a few times.  After a couple of hours we were pretty pooped and decided we would head over to Bryce Canyon to check out the skiing opportunities there for future reference. We stopped at a scenic view point in Red Canyon and ate lunch in the car. Then we went over to Mossy Cave and the waterfall there before going into Bryce proper.  (If you ever go to Bryce, don't miss these two little gems.  They are part of the park, but are actually to be found on the road to Tropic.)  The cave was wearing beautiful "winterbeards" and the waterfall was frozen except for a little bit that was running down a hole in the middle.  It was beautiful.  

We stopped in at Ruby's Inn to see what information they might have.  They have some groomed trails outside the park, but some snowmobiles had kind of messed them up and since it was a sunny day they said the snow was getting pretty mushy for skiing.  We continued on to Bryce and found to our delight that this weekend is a freebie - no entrance fee for the MLK holiday.  Since the skiing was not good, we just drove to all the viewpoints.  It wasn't crowded at all and so beautiful with all the snow on the red rocks.  If they get another snow over that way, we may have to try it out.