Bryce Canyon National Park

This morning we made our way into our third state of the trip—Utah! During our drive, we endured yet another confusing change in time (Arizona is on MST, but does not observe daylight savings time, unless perhaps you are on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona) and a dramatic increase in elevation. We now were growing accustomed to the beautifully scenic drives, filled views of snow capped mountains and serene rivers. The drive up to Bryce Canyon was no different. Because we were visiting on a busy weekend, we could not find lodging in the town outside of the park, aptly named Bryce Canyon City. Even the two Best Westerns in town were booked. We prepared ourselves for a long day of driving, surveying, hiking, and sight-seeing.

We passed by Red Canyon, which gave us a little taste of what to expect at Bryce Canyon. The orange-red unique geologic formations certainly piqued our excitement. As expected, there were many visitors at Bryce, despite the threat of rain and 50 degree highs. During the rainy part of the day, we surveyed the Visitor Center, gift shops, a restaurant, vending machines, a convenience store, and some water fountains. Once the work was done, we were finally able to enjoy the enchantment of Bryce Canyon. Unworldly is how we decided to explain it. The canyon is comprised of strangely shaped red rocks called ‘hoodoos’. Parts of the canyon were still covered with snow since Bryce has freezing temperatures 200 days out of the year. From Sunrise to Sunset point we walked amongst the hoodoos, feeling as if we were ants in a box of peculiar red rocks. We hiked on part of the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Trail, which gave us beautiful views of these hoodoos. A high point was Wall Street, where the trail wound us through tall hoodoos. If you looked closely, one hoodoo even resembled the Nasdaq building J

Our time at Bryce was sadly short-lived since we had to continue 2 more hours to Springdale, Utah. Little did we know that in order to get to the town of Springdale we would have to drive through the east side of Zion National Park. What a treat! The mountains on this side of the part were white and gray silk sandstone etched with swirls and spirals. The curvy drive sent us through many switchbacks and even a one mile tunnel through Mt. Carmel. Every turn was an “oohh” and “aahh;” we could not get enough of this place already. We stopped at the canyon because about a dozen photographers decked out with their professional Nixons, Canons, and telephoto lenses were all capturing what we soon realized to be a breathtaking sunset. Simply amazing! We checked in, had some good food at the local yokel spot – The Bit and Spur, before calling it a night.