Rambling Journey: Bryce Canyon National Park in Southern Utah

Bryce Canyon is Poetry in Stone. It's serene vistas are deceptive; the landscape is never static. In the geology of the canyon lives the HOODOOS. They are formation of rocks that don't grow like trees but are eroded out of the cliffs where rows of narrow walls form. These thin walls of rock are called fins. Frost wedging enlarges cracks in the fins, creating holes or widows. As windows grow, their tops eventually collapse, leaving a column. Rain further dissolves and sculpts these limestone pillars into bulbous spires called HOODOOS. The delicate climatic balance between snow and rain ensures that new hoodoos will emerge while others become reduced to lumps of clay.

While here we wanted to experience all aspects of the canyon. We started out as we usual do by visiting the visitor center and viewing any information movies they offer. After that we usually find a picnic table and have lunch and then on to exploring some of the resources the park has to offer. Some of the events that we wanted to take part in this park was sunset and then later at night we returned for what they call Starry Night. High elevation, clean dry air, lack of light pollution make Bryce Canyon one the earth's darkest places. We never dreamed their were that many stars out in space. The next morning before daylight we were there again for sunrise. Because of the different colors in the rocks the time of the day and how the sun touches the Hoodoos you can get a very different appearance of the formations. Later in the day I took a long hike down into the narrow loops of the canyon. A drop of several hundred feet. A total different world down in. In addition we saw an abundance of Deer and Prong Horn Antelope.

This was a National park that was hard to leave because of the beauty of the canyon formations at different times of the day and how the clouds, sun and noon react upon the different formation.