RED CANYON - BRYCE CANYON

We spent the night at a B & B in Panguitch, Utah. Our hosts were very interesting: the husband is the principal of Panguitch High School; his wife teaches "home economics" in Kanab, Utah, 67 miles down the road. She laughed saying that there was now a very fancy name for "home economics", but the curriculum was the same.
We took a fairly short trip, stopping at the Red Canyon, an area loaded with colorful formations and lots of hoodoos. This first picture was taken from the highway and is the start of the area.

We visited the Visitor Center and then took a 3/4 mile hike around the area. This is just one of the views that we had from this trail.

The trail was very interesting and there were a number of hoodoo formations that were colorful but we decided to wait for Bryce Canyon and the hoodoos there. We did go through two very cool tunnels that had been cut from the rock to put the highway in and one of them is here.

OK, it's time to visit Bryce Canyon National Park. The Park is laid out with the majority of what visitors end up seeing is all at the northern end. There is an 18 mile long road that wends its way south through the Park with a number of superb viewpoints. So, we started our journey at the southern, Rainbow Point. We have two pictures that were taken here. The first is a view of the canyon looking to the north while he second is the view to the south.

It was necessary for political purposes that I include a few pictures of my boys in this blog. So here's one of them. As you can see, it was a little nippy up at 9,000 feet and the heavier stuff was out.

We continued to work our way north until we stopped off at the natural bridge overlook. What more can I say: here's the natural bridge.

We left natural bridge and drove up to Bryce Point. It became apparent that we were about to get some foul weather and pretty soon. This picture shows a chunk of the canyon, waiting for something nasty to happen. We did end up getting a few drops of rain over the next few hours but nothing major.

Our next real keeper was taken at the next, and probably the most well known lookout area in the Park, Inspiration Point. This is just a vast array of hoodoos: the area has a name which escapes me, but it is an absolutely incredible scene..This first picture shows the main view to the north while the second picture shows a much different view to the south.

Well, the easy part is over. We will be doing a rather strenuous hike. The Navajo Trail descends 550 feet down into the canyon. Here it joins a connector trail that only climbs about 200 feet, and then connects with the Queen's Garden trail. Here we have the opportunity to hike up the next 300+ feet to the top at Sunrise Point. So without further verbiage "welcome to the Navajo Trail".

And another view taken of the trail as it descends into the canyon bottom.

We passed another of the more famous "features" of the park along this trail, Thors Hammer. Naturally everyone wants to know when the hammer head will fall off but we don't expect it to happen this week.

Furthe along the trail it became necessary to prove to the world that my boys were still around. And yes, they were not wearing jackets for the fun of it. The weather was still a tad chilly.

I think that this is the best picture I have that shows some of the depth of the canyon, as the hikers descend to the bottom, or ascend from there. These are all switchbacks which don't get any easier as your breathing gets faster and the heart takes off. Nothing like the oxygen levels at 8000 feet.

A whole bunch of years ago, when the Earth's crust was cooling, and we took our kids to places like Bryce Canyon, we always had to keep an eye on the boys, who would find every dumb place to climb and hide and give their mother heart palpitations. We are both so grateful that they have finally outgrown this habit.

This next picture was taken as we huffed and puffed our way up the Sunrise Point trail. It shows the enormous size of some of these hoodoos when compared to the average adult.

One of the really cool spots along the trail are the two or three tunnels that you pass through. Are these man made or nature made? Who knows and who really cares? To be a bit repetitive, they are cool!

Okay. I'm 83. I'm pooped and I'm in pain! So what! After about four miles of hiking today, including going down over 500 feet and coming back up, I have a right to be pooped. Did I mention that at 8000 feet there is no oxygen. Whatever!

Well we can't end this extraordinary visit to Bryce Canyon with pictures of tired old men so lets end it with a great view of the canyon from Sunrise Point.
All three of us agreed that this was an incredible day and an incredible park. Tomorrow we are off to Page, Arizona. We'll take this 500 + feet descent via elevator at Glen Canyon Dam, complete with.air conditioning. It will not be as pretty going down but that's life.