Day 60, 16th October 2011. Paria - Zion National Park, Utah

Kirsty woke me up about 10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off. I got up and got my things together and started walking over to the bathrooms to get ready. On the way I stopped because I saw a really dog and I spent a while stroking it. Dean woke up and came and stroked the dog too and I filled him in on the stuff he couldn't remember from last night, even though he was still drunk.

Once I had got ready and had some breakfast, I waited with the rest of the girls to go horse riding (the boys didn't want to do it).

Kirsty and Amelia waiting to go horse riding

We were doing horse riding with Easton who owned the ranch, so he picked us all up and we rode in the back of his truck to the stables. When we got there we all got given basic instructions and assigned to our horses.

My horse was called Roach, and he was so naughty! As soon as I got on him, I already didn't like him. I said that I wanted a good horse because I didn't really know anything about horses, but I ended up getting him because I picked last. I feel mean to say bad things about Roach, but I wish he would have behaved himself a bit better.

Me and Roach

The horses were very clever, they all knew where they were going and all walked like good horses in the line (well, the rest of them did, Roach had a few incidents). I was quite near the back on Roach and he kept stopping to eat all the time and they kept telling me I had to kick and slap him, but I didn't want to, because I felt mean. 

Lisa was in front of me and her horse kept trying to eat to, but it stopped when she pulled on its rains. I was trying so hard to get Roach to stop eating, but he kept doing it. He also kept trying to walk in the wrong direction too, I was getting very annoyed with him. Easton kept telling me I had to be more firm with him but I felt like a bully.

Eventually, Roach started to behave, then all of a sudden, he started running in the complete opposite direction. I was so scared and didn't know what to do but luckily I sorted him out and he got back in line. I kept shouting at him and he started being good, by the end of the ride he was behaving well and the people that worked there said I was doing a good job to handle him.
The horse ride lasted about an hour and a half and it was really fun (kind of). I don't think horse riding is one of my skills, but I did my best and it was a really nice environment to do it in, I felt like a real cowgirl. When we got back to the stables Roach started being naughty again and as soon as I relaxed, he was running around looking for food again, I was very glad to get off him.

When we got back to the van, we got all our stuff packed up, and started driving away. As we were leaving, a man that worked there came running up to the van with a pair of shoes that had been left there. They were Dean's, he had forgotten them because the other group had left before us.

We drove for a few hours, and then we reached Bryce Canyon National Park.

We stopped for some lunch in the parking lot, and then we went on a short afternoon hike. I am aware that I'm starting to sound like a broken record because I say this about everywhere we went, but Bryce Canyon was so beautiful. It was like one of my favourite places for scenery, I actually preferred it over the Grand Canyon. It was so so pretty, so here is a photo overload.

The hike really was short, it was only an hour and a half, but that really was enough for all of us. It was really steep in a lot of places, and it was really hot out. Plus we were all tired and hungover from last night, everyone kept tripping over. It was totally worth it though because we saw so many beautiful sights.

Amelia all tired out

When we got to the end I was glad, although it was so pretty, I'd had enough of hiking, and I didn't want to do any more for a very long time. (now that I'm home, I miss it so much, I could totally go for a nice hike right now, its a shame that London/England is so ugly...). 

Then we got back in the van and started driving towards our camp for the night, in Zion National Park, it took about 3 hours. When we got there, we found out 2 things. 1) Dean had not only left his shoes (which we bought back for him) but ALL of his stuff at the ranch, so a guy who worked there had driven all day to get it all back to him. 2) The other group were going to Vegas a day early.

Yep, they were going to Vegas tomorrow, rather than the next day, so they would get 3 nights there. Of course straight away me and Gary wanted to do that too, but Mark said no (resulting in a lot of complaining from me and Leah). So, after dinner, Mark sat us all down and said we could talk about it.

I wont go too much into what happened, but basically it was a 50/50 divide on who in our group wanted to go to Vegas early and who didn't. I was firmly on the Vegas side, I don't understand how anyone could not be. Basically it was ruled by Mark that we would not go. I was so pissed. Like so angry you would not believe. It was so unfair that the others got to go early and we didn't. I was really upset, there was no cheering me up that night. I asked Gary to take Mark aside and explain to him that we were getting married and we would like some extra time there, and the only thing he suggested was that we pay for the people who didn't want to go, to get hotel rooms to convince them to go... ummmm no.

If that wasn't bad enough, Zoe and Justine walked over saying that they had just seen a tarantula. I totally freaked out and cried. Not only was I stick here when they got to go to Vegas, but there were tarantulas. I had a bit of a bad night, but Zoe tried to cheer me up be saying at least there was good wifi at camp. It was one of those things that you had to be there to find funny, but the way I was going on about it like the world was ending, and she was like 'hey, at least the wifi is good', it was just really funny.

Some people were going out for a drink, but we didn't really feel like it so we just went to bed.