Your first view of the Canyon is a dramatic feast for the
eyes! You walk through stands of Ponderosa pines until they break at the rim of
Bryce Canyon, revealing a panorama of goblins, towers, fins and hoodoos of a
color you can’t quite name. The rim reaches over 9,100 feet above sea level!
Are there other places where hoodoos (odd-shaped pillars of
rock left standing from the forces of erosion) can be found? Yes. They are on
every continent, but at Bryce Canyon is the largest collection of hoodoos in
the world!
What is a hoodoo? Hoodoos don’t grow like trees, but are
eroded out of the cliffs where rows of narrow walls form from the canyon wall.
These thin walls of rock are called fins.
Frost wedging enlarges cracks in the
fins, creating holes or windows. As windows grow, their tops eventually
collapse, leaving a column.
The elements further dissolve these limestone
pillars into spires called hoodoos. Over time as old hoodoos erode, new hoodoos
are formed.
Bryce Canyon's landscape is unique, there is nothing quite
like it anywhere else on earth.
Views from the canyon rim are spectacular, but
the views are even better when you hike down in among the hoodoos and other
interesting formations. I captured these hikers way across the canyon from us. they look like ants, because they were far down in the hoodoos.
We took a trail ride to the rim, but you can take a trail ride on horseback to the bottom of the canyon. I am sure it is beautiful, But no thanks ... it is at least 3-hours! My real quandary is, why is there a mule on the horse trail? Oh, you can take a horseback ride or a mule ride to the base of the canyon. Would a mule be anymore comfortable than a horse?
Try and describe them to someone, it is an impossible task.
Some might call it a forest of stone. But then there are trees growing among
the stone. Others would say that the wind, water and time have eroded the
sandstone cliffs into characters plucked from the subconscious of a mad man. So silent, so eerie and yet so beautiful.
Photographs do not do it justice, they miss the depth and wondrous
colors!
The canyon’s colors comes alive at every turn, especially as
the sun rises and sets.
We enjoyed the much cooler temperatures at Bryce, which were
at least 10 degrees cooler than Zion! Since it was a bit cooler, we were able
to walk several of the trails and loops while in the park.
The Rim Trail travels along the rim of the canyon from Bryce
Point (which was closed because the 1926 concrete was failing and it is under
reconstruction) to Inspiration Point, to Sunset Point, to Sunrise Point and
ends at Fairyland Point.
We walked from Inspiration to Sunset one day and from
Sunset to Sunrise another day. Every step leads to different and beautiful views!
We went to the north end of the park and walked the Mossy
Cave trail to the waterfalls. What I found most interesting, was the water that
flowed from the Tropic Ditch, to the Mossy Cave waterfalls and onto the Paria
River flowed across the most beautiful colored rock.
Red, pink and tans … but
the pick stood out the most!
Of course, I had to put my feet in the river!
Several of the observation points were accessible by the
park shuttle which we took several of the days we visited the park. There are additional viewing points on a 37 mile round trip drive into the southern part of the canyon.
While on
the bus, the keen eyed bus drivers helped us to see the wildlife! We saw deer
and fawn eating and once day we saw two pronghorn antelopes. We can see chipmunks running all over the park, too!
Our first stop on our self-guided tour of the lower view points was Swamp Canyon with an elevation of 7,998 feet. We never saw any swamp from our vantage point.
Piracy Point – Elevation 8,819 – It was here we found a
Uinta Chipmunk or
Golden-mantled ground squirrel posing for us on a ledge of
the canyon. Some of you are saying, you don’t know the difference between a
chipmunk and a squirrel? Yes, I do … but both of these have stripes on their backs
and the squirrel is only slightly bigger with a more rounded face.
Okay, after further review, it is a chipmunk! He was so cute, just up there posing for us! He stayed there for a good 5 minutes. The first picture shows where he was and the second is his close up!
Farview Point was adjacent to Piracy Point and we walked along the trail to get between the two. Charlie, Charlie and Rick did not venture to Piracy Point with us, they stayed at Farview. While they were there, they found an "surprise" Natural Bridge. Our next stop is the Natural Bridge that the park set up a view point for. This was our "surprise" Natural Bridge.
Here is the Natural Bridge that the park wants people to view! It has an elevation of 8,624. Someday, this bridge will erode and fall. But who knows how long that will take!
Agua Canyon was another view point with an elevation of 8,800 feet, we could not find any agua (water) in the canyon! We did find this spire that looks like a raised fist or a torch!–
Ponderosa Canyon was the next view point heading south. We are rising just a bit in the elevation at 8,904. There were many Ponderosa pines at this canyon. There also was this one set of sand colored hoodoos among all of these red rock hoodoos! This place is amazing!
At Black Birch Canyon view point, we found a Monarch butterfly. I wonder if the elevation of 8,750, affects her breathing, like it does ours!
We also found a "window" in the hoodoos at this view point.
At Rainbow Point, we walked the Bristlecone Loop to Yovimpa
Point. Both points were at the highest elevations in Bryce - 9,115 feet above
sea level. 
The views were breathtaking!
If you never have been here, you really need to come! The pictures do not do the views justice!
No comments:
Post a Comment