Hanging around Paradise (RV Park)

We got a great weekly rate at the Paradise RV Park, a few miles north of the little town of Panguitch, Utah.  Our main reason to be here is its proximity to Bryce Canyon National Park, and we've already blogged about several of the amazing adventures we've had here.  But between those special trips, we also do some random things.  So this is a collection of random things that take up some of our time during an average week on the road.  

Our trip here took us by some of the highest peaks in Utah.   Even from the distance, we could see the patches of gold in the mountains because the aspens at high elevations have already turned to their fall foliage color.

We took a drive up scenic highway 143 towards Panguitch Lake.  We though it was interesting that the first road sign on this highway told us what highway we were NOT on.

Highway 89 is a through highway that is much used by trucks and RVs.  But this highway 143 ends in some wicked steep switchbacks that you should never attempt in an RV.  Thanks for the warning, but we are in the car today and didn't drive to the end.  When we don't know the area well, or don't have a mapped hike, we can always stop and hike a forest road.

We were high enough on this hike to find some of those golden aspens this evening.

We also found hills and fields of lava rock from some ancient volcanic eruption.

We had some rainy days while we were parked here for a week.  Those days can be a good break from hiking, and a time to catch up on laundry and cleaning.  It's true that even on perpetual vacation, the mundane daily tasks still have to be accomplished.  We also use these days to do some extra cooking.  After doing research to find out that the ripening rose hips are a very good source of Vitamin C, we found some rose bushes that were just full of them.  We harvested enough for a small batch of rose hip syrup.  Here they are, washed and cut and ready to become syrup.  

They smelled a lot like plums, and made a light pink syrup.  Denisa liked the pretty and healthy syrup on the yummy french toast that Mark whipped up.  Mark didn't want to say he didn't like it, so he just said he preferred that unhealthy nasty store-bought maple syrup better.

We had the french toast and syrup for Sunday morning breakfast before we left for church.  In the small town of Panguitch (population 1,520), there are 4 Latter Day Saints churches.  The only other church in town was a tiny Baptist church.

We usually eat out once or twice each week, so that means that we definitely cook most of our meals.  We eat healthy meals, but some times those unhealthy cravings catch up with us.  Mark had mentioned earlier this week that the rock formations in Kodachrome State Park reminded him of bubble loaf.  

That's all he has thought about since that hike.  So we bought the ingredients and made what Denisa has renamed "Kodachrome Sticky Buns."

I'm not sure we would want to know how many miles we would have to hike to work off just one of those sticky buns! 

As if making syrup and sticky buns was not enough, we also whipped up another of those four-layer peach desserts while we were sitting in Paradise.  Some times having rainy days can be very hard on a waistline.  Right after we finished making the dessert, we found out that it was one of our camping neighbor's birthday, and he was having to celebrate it alone.  That peach dessert suddenly became a birthday cake, and he told us over and over how much he loved it.

Random stuff today, but much of our time is spent rather randomly.