southwest road trip - day 8 - bryce canyon

Our second day in Bryce dawned bright and sunny. We decided to do a couple of shorter hikes to the most popular formations and view points in the park. We started at Sunrise Point where we had a great view down into an area known as Bryce Amphitheatre.

We started with a 1 mile hike down into the canyon on the Queens Garden Trail.

The trail took us close to some interesting hoodoos...

... and through small tunnels in the narrow sandstone fins...

... into the area known as the Queens Garden.

As the sign explains, many of the formations in the park have been named for their perceived resemblance to people or objects.

It took us a while but eventually we "found" the hoodoo named after Queen Victoria. (Didn't think to look UP to find her sitting on top of a rock spire.) So there she sits on her high throne looking down on a "garden" of smaller hoodoos.

We then joined the 2 mile Navajo Loop Trail which took down us down into the canyon floor and along a dry stream bed, before climbing back towards the canyon rim.

The ascent took us into a narrow slot canyon where we were startled to come across these towering Douglas Fir trees, believed to be about 450 years old.

We took a short rest at the base of the trees...

... before continuing the 500ft climb up through the narrow slot canyon known as "Wall Street".

Looking back down into Wall Street from higher up the trail you can see how hikers are dwarfed by the height of canyon walls. (You may need to click on the pic to enlarge it to make the hikers out!)

After our hike we headed to Rainbow Point at the far southern end of the park where we stopped for a picnic lunch and to take in the view back along the canyon rim. Rainbow Point is the highest point in the park at 9,115ft (2778m)

We then took the 18 mile scenic drive back through the park, stopping at many viewpoints on the way. Here at Ponderosa Point Mark made friends with large black raven.

At Natural Bridge viewpoint a large natural arch provides a glimpse through to a thick forest of Ponderosa Pine in the valley below.

southwest road trip - day 7 - bryce canyon - fairyland loop

From the Grand Canyon we headed back into southern Utah to Bryce Canyon National Park, famous for its unusual rock spires called hoodoos. Located on the edge of a high plateau between 8,000 and 9,000ft, the canyon has been shaped not by flowing water but by mechanical and chemical weathering. For 200 days a year the temperature goes above and below freezing every day. During the day, melt water seeps into fractures in the rock only to freeze at night, expanding and cracking the rock. Over time this "frost-wedging" shatters and pries rock apart. In addition, rain water, which is naturally acidic, slowly dissolves the limestone, rounding off edges and washing away debris.

Unfortunately, the wet weather seemed to have followed us but we didn't want to just view the canyon from the car, so we donned some wet weather gear and braving the sticky red mud set out for a 3 mile (4.8km) hike to a formation called Tower Bridge.

On the way we passed through a gap in a long, white rock fin called the China Wall.

After descending nearly 1,000ft from the canyon rim we came to a small stream and the well-named Tower Bridge which, sitting some 50ft upslope of the stream, didn't exactly span the water, but did resemble its namesake.

From Tower Bridge we could have returned to the canyon rim, but a small sign indicating "Fairyland Point 4 miles via Fairyland Loop Trail" tempted us to push on, despite the continuing drizzle. The trees didn't offer us much shelter, but the scenery was enticing. Here Boat Mesa towers above the hoodoos (and us).

The rocks and soil in the canyon are primarily siltstone and limestone that apparently turns into a sticky mess when wet. Our shoes kept gathering red mud that clung so well it felt like walking with weights on our feet!

Mark admires the rows and rows of hoodoos. Hoodoos are spires of rock that have alternating hard and soft layers that weather unevenly giving them a totem-pole or stone statue-like appearance. The term hoodoo comes from African-American folk-magic meaning "to cast a spell" or "one who performs magic". A fitting name for the fantastic shapes in Bryce Canyon.

This one caught our eye. Could that be a hoodoo cat sitting atop the rock?

As the day wore on the weather began to improve and patches of blue appeared in the sky.

As we climbed higher up the trail we began to get glimpses out of the canyon to the valley beyond. (If you click on this pic to enlarge it you'll see people on the trail that will give you some perspective of the size of the hoodoo formations).

The green vegetation made an interesting contrast to the oranges, pinks and whites of the rock formations. We noticed a couple of large caves hiding between these hoodoos. (Click on the pic and the caves will be easier to see).

Eventually the canyon rim was again in sight. The climb back up to the canyon rim sure was a lot harder than the climb down! (Especially after hiking for 5.5 miles)

When we got to Fairyland Point we admired the view and then checked the map. It was another 2.7 miles along the Rim Trail back to our car at Sunrise Point!

Fortunately the rim trail was just gently undulating, and there were interesting view spots along the way.

We even found a convenient log to take a short rest on and admire the view. We'd certainly earned the pizza we had that night for dinner!