We were on our own for breakfast and are at one of Ruby's restaurants, where else. It was a pretty good buffet. We got ice, headed back to the room, packed out and were on our way.
We drove right out to Rainbow Point and worked our way back, one turnout at a time. The road after Bryce point is off limits to RV's and most buses. There were plenty of hills, winding curves and sheer drop-offs. The back end of the park provided more interesting vistas and we had some of the morning light to work with. The less travelled part of the park was more intimate, like going to Schoodic at Acadia.
We got lots of canyon shots, selfies together and panoramic shots. It was partly cloudy at times and the pools of shade would punctuate scenes. The larger hoodoos had trees growing on them and looked like alien islands. I told a lady to look closely, there were hikers up on one of them! We spotted some windows and tunnels through the rocks too. The morning was pretty much spent by the time we made it back to Bryce Point and made a beeline to the rest of the world.
We left Bryce Canyon National Park, crossed Route 12 and headed up the John's Valley Road entering a new world. The road opened up into sweeping open pastures. That is open as in "no fences", watch for cattle in the roadway. Cattle grates would cross the roadway where fences separated pastures but the roads were fair game for grazing.
We spotted a few structures bermed into hillsides with just the entry exposed. We learned that these were early Mormon "earth homes".
We headed down a long downhill drive with loose rock walls alongside the roadway, the kind of rocks that can and did fall. The majestic space winding between rock was something new to us. This emerged into more vistas of mountains all around. We passed through a few ghost towns and many abandoned camps and homes. There was a backcountry store maybe 2 that were open. As we went the trees thinned out. The grass of the fields included more underbrush and became less lush.
As we rounded a corner we saw signs of a small town and a sign welcoming us to Antimony. It had important information, like the rules for driving your ATV on the street. The town is named after the ore once mined there. Population is running about 122. By now we were getting hungry and we came upon the "Back Door Cafe & Antimony Mercantile". We decide this was the chance for an experience and pulled in. We walked into the store and an old but tidy enough lunch counter and grill sat there. The owner a younger and really nice fellow sat us and brought menus. I forget the name of the burger I got but I remember it included "2 thick slices of Canadian bacon" cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce and that it was really good! The dining room was plastered with pictures of hunters with their game. The place included a campground, the restaurant shared the same single restroom. There's something refreshing about a room impregnated with a mélange of toiletries. I think we passed on having a slice of pie but they had pie. Everyone seems to offer lots of pie around here. Walking out I noticed an ice cream novelty cooler that hadn't seen a defrost cycle in a while. I may have been half full of frost.
That got us on the road to ending the day though we knew not where. We continued up route 22 to 62 and down 24. Along the way we stopped at a hilltop rest area where we had signal and booked a room at the Snuggle Inn of Loa.
Loa was a nice enough looking village, maybe 50 percent of the storefronts were active. The Snuggle Inn was an especially attractive place. The owner greeted us and got us registered. Our room came with an old school brass key with the plastic tag including the room number. It was a nice unique room. Rooms were individually described on the website and I had picked #2. Some were suites. Adjacent to the main inn was a building of more conventional motel design. This place was nifty… The lobby was spacious with a grand staircase that wound to the rooms upstairs. The downstairs was taken up with the office, a gift shop and pizza parlor that appeared out of business. The 81 year old veteran owner was very gracious in welcoming us. He said that he enjoyed art and that we would see much of it on display through the lobby and halls. Motion sensors would turn the lights on as we explored and we were to make ourselves at home. Most of the art items were variations on Western themes. It was a refreshing treat compared to the usual motel/hotel. I couldn't find a thermostat in the room though there were central air ducts. The room was warm. I asked and was told to use the thermostat in the hallway. Hopefully we wouldn't be sharing the thermostat with a guest that has a different idea of comfort.
We were also briefed that we were there on the day of the week when the only restaurant in town was closed. Many guests did well finding breakfast foods at the Family Dollar next door. We had a microwave and fridge in our room. Family Dollar also had frozen entrées we might enjoy. The local supermarket down the road would also be open for a while; they have a deli counter and dine-in tables.
We needed to get a load of laundry done but the hotel did not have a laundry room. There was a little public laundromat up the street. We scoped it out, it wasn't pretty but it was functional. The back of the building included demolished restrooms left over from a campground that was once on the back of the lot.
Getting back to food, we went down to that supermarket, got breakfast fixings and a sandwich for dinner and returned to the laundromat. Lorna got the loads running and we had time to walk the village taking some pictures. There were some really cool buildings and monuments. The LOA CO-OP (1912) that became the Road Creek Inn (closed) stood out. It was interesting to see an in town yard fenced, irrigated and with 3 or so cows grazing. I guess you just grow your own beef around here. There was a nice little town hall, church, very spacious park and another open lot with an open picnic shelter. The lights are certainly on in Loa.
We got back to the laundromat. While Lorna worked the dryers I was able to fire up the laptop and take care of the downloading and back-up of pictures from the day and eat dinner as that was going on. We got back to the hotel, put things away and went down to the lobby table to plan the next day's route.
