Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon National park is our next stop on the tour of the southwest. We hoped in the van Thursday afternoon and drove about about 2 hours northeast through more dramatic scenery and arrived late afternoon at our campground. Its more of the same. Beautiful, colorful surroundings. Dry warm days and cold evenings (Bryce is at 8000 feet.) 

We started out at the park last night by attending a stargazing event. Bryce Canyon is known to have some of the darkest skies in the United States due to them fact that the area is so sparsely populated. It's also a good time of the month to see the night sky because on Saturday there will be no moon which makes the night even darker. The park set up about 30 telescopes all pointed at something different and we went around to each and someone was there explaining what you were looking at. We saw the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars as well as a few galaxies and stars and star clusters. We marveled at the number of stars we could see. Last month we looked at the sky outside our house and counted 50 something stars. The lights of the east coast and our proximity to Nashua prevents us from seeing more stars. By comparison, the Park Ranger here said we could see in excess of 4000 stars on a clear night at Bryce Canyon.  We also could see the Milky Way with the naked eye which I have never seen before. 

Because the event went from 10:30 to midnight, we slept a little later than usual but we were still back at the park by 9:30. We hiked a trail, The Queens Garden-Navajo Loop that is called the best 3 mile hike in the world. By who? I don't know but that is what they advertise it as. We added another side trail, The Peek-a-boo Loop to add a little more mileage and a combination of the 3 trails form a figure 8 that totaled 6.5 miles. 

At Zion we saw what millions of years of water erosion can do to rock and at Bryce it's all about what the wind can do. The wind and rain has eroded soft red,orange and white sandstone into strange geological structures called Hoodoos which form not really a canyon but an amphitheater. The Paiute Indians believed the Hoodoos were once people who were turned to stone. There are so many of these pinnacles and like the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon is best seen not from the rim but up close. It was a great hike that you just never want to put the camera away.  While the elevation gain wasn't as strenuous as Observation Point, it was a lot of up and down,mostly in the sun and wiith a tough finish that left us tired and ready to chill by the pool back at the campsite. 

A Hoodoo called Thors Hammer on the left. 

More switchbacks 

And one of us. Trust me when I say we did not color coordinate our outfits for the day. Maybe after 29 years of marriage we have a 6th sense. The colors go well with the background too.