Stone Hearth Grille, Bryce Canyon 07-2021

For our anniversary we spent the day wandering around some of the lower paths of Bryce Canyon. A few of the major ones were closed due to heavy rain and collapsed areas. There were stories of a few walkers who got stuck down there. Luckily the weather had improved somewhat in the ensuing days for us, and so after wandering through the pillars in amazement, the toughest part was the long slow uphill slog back.

All in a days walking though to prepare for the night meal. For an anniversary, there aren't many occasion restaurants and this highly rated one required a 25min drive all the way around Bryce Canyon, through the tiny town of Tropic, and to what is probably the back end of the canyon.

The restaurant is in a lovely stone house with beautiful photos inside showing the canyon in the best light.

- Grilled Halibut (burnt onion puree, calamari, brown butter fish sauce vinaigrette) USD36;
- Dungeness Crab Mac & Cheese (dungeness crab, cavatappi, chives, old bay bread crumbs) USD26 - this was an exciting dish on the menu however there just wasn't enough crab and was standard in the end.

For reasons that I don't understand, the waitress was pretty sullen. Just to us of course, to other people she would ask how the meal was etc., but she seemed happy to avoid any unnecessities with us.

Overall a disappointing experience.

Balcony One, Virgin 07-2021

It was a long drive from Death Valley and hedging bets on not running out of fuel between Dante's View and the nearest station out of the east side of the NP. Upon the final stretch (but still long) road toward Springdale (our base for Zion NP) we were looking for something to eat.

Google found a place called Cactus Room that supposedly open and well rated, but upon driving onto the gravel carparking area it was clearly closed and perhaps had been for a while. Back to Google and the place directly across the road would have to do. It was busy with the carpark quite full and a short 10min queue for tables inside.

Soon we were seated at a nice spot next to the window.

- Fresh onion soup (slow cooked, from scratch, beef stock with fresh onions, topped with toasted puffy bread  and melted provolone and parmesan cheese) USD9 - or was it French onion soup? Nonetheless a mild flavoured soup topped with pastry which was a nice change;
- South Western Salad (assorted lettuce topped with our house made shrimp ceviche, black beans, roasted corn, tomato, red onion, avocado and cilantro, served with chipotle ranch dressing, garnished with a corn tortilla) USD15;
- 16 oz cut of Prime Creekstone Farms Ribeye served with our famous Brussels sprouts, our flash fried baked potato and a fresh house salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, jicama and carrot served with sage vinaigrette) USD48 - probably more expensive than I had planned for, but we can't always live under a budget and many days of supermarket sandwich lunches balanced it out. Requested rare and served pretty close, this large piece of meat was tender and delicious. The sprouts and potato were good accompaniments and at least cooked in their own slightly more unique way.

An excellent bit of meat probably like the cowboys enjoy.