Bryce Canyon - June 20th

Another beautiful, sunny Utah morning and we are off to another National Park destination. This time it's going to be Bryce Canyon National Park. Today it's only supposed to be about 60 miles one way. WRONG! We drive North on I-15 to Cedar City and take State Route 14 to Bryce. 5 miles of spectacular scenery on a twisting, mountainous state route and ….... road repairs! A rock slide had the road closed , probably for the next month. Back out to I-15 and North another 35 miles and a different route into Bryce. Eventually a total of 115 miles instead of the originally expected 60, we are entering Bryce Canyon National Park. It turned out to be well worth the extra miles though.

Roadway arch on way into Bryce

While on the way we went thru a stone archway over the road. Yup, Nancy just had to take photos.

Highest walking elevation in Bryce.
Breathless to say the least!!

When we entered the park we decided to go to Bryce Point first. It was lunchtime and we thought we would find a picnic table to eat at ....no luck, so we ate in the car. Then about one mile down the road, yup a picnic area. Nancy, then read the park literature and discovered the Canyon was only 18 miles long. So we drove to the far end and headed back stopping at most points of interest.

A natural Arch

Used to be another arch here, too.

These are "Hoodoo

So are these
I can't begin to tell you how magnificent the “hoodoos” are. Hoodoos are the pinnacles of rock that rise 100's of feet but are only a few feet in diameter. They are everywhere and are just, soooo cool. The canyon is lots of red and multicolored sandstone and when the walls and formations go from shade to sunshine are just so different. Someone told me this was a must see National Park and I now believe they were correct. The scenes are so different and varied it just takes your breath away.

More Hoodoos

Hoodoos, Hoodoos everywhere!

On our way home we thought we would drive thru Zion National Park as it was the closest way home. When we entered Zion at the east end we were surprised at the different scenery. We didn't have a chance to stop due to the narrow roadway and terrain. We planned Zion for a trip on Friday anyways. On our way through the park we drove through two different tunnels. The second one was over a mile long, and was 11' 9” high on the side but in the very center was 13'4” high. If a trailer or motorhome needed to go thru they had to have an escort which stopped traffic through the tunnel. The switchbacks and elevation changes down into the canyon were totally unexpected and almost unbelievable. It was so warm down there that we didn't stop even when we had the chance.

Once again you can guess by all our other statements the temperatures once again were triple digits. Most days reaching at least 105, we were really glad to get back home and sit around and be a vegetable for the remainder of the day.