Bryce Canyon National Park

I finally arrived at Bryce early afternoon on Sunday, August 28.  The temperature was between 72 and77 degrees on the north end of the Park.  As you climb during the 18 mile drive from the entrance of the Park on the north end at about 7700 feet elevation to the south end of the road at Rainbow Point in excess of 9100 feet elevation, you pull our your jacket.  The scenery is unique and striking,

"This must be the start of something new"... and new and different it truly is

This is only the introduction...the best is yet to come

The view to the northeast from Sunrise Point...

and looking more easterly from Sunrise Point,,,

This is the zoomed version of what is between the cliffs in the 2 previous pictures.!

Bryce Canyon Lodge.

I thought the red convertible added just the right touch.

Bryan, your brother-in-law is responsible for my seeking out and meeting Linda from Jonesborough, who is working in the gift shop at Bryce, as I am at Zion

Looking down into these spires reminded me of looking down on an ancient adobe city with spired rooftops.

This is Sunset Point.  Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration, and Bryce points encircle Bryce Amphitheater, the biggest natural amphitheater in the park.

A view from a few feet down the path.

And a few feet on, we get a different perspecetive.

Until I figure out how to rotate, you'll have to turn your head sideways (or your computer).

There is a path down there; and people are walking the "Under-the-Rim trail", actually under the rim of the canyon on which I am standing.  This is Inspiration Point, I believe.

The high point just to the left of center is Bryce Point, which faces north.  As you can see, the sun was down, so I by-passed Bryce Point and headed on down the road.

From that to this!  This broad area on top of the plateau has been burned in the recent past.  It reminded me of the drive between Canyon and Norris in Yellowstone National Park, my 1st Park adventure.

                         As you can see, looking off to the West, the sun is riding lower in the sky.

Swamp Canyon...almost 8,000 feet elevation.

This area fronts on The Pink Cliffs.  Just look at that sky.

The pull-off is between the 2 areas that reminded me so much of Yellowstone...the burn you just saw and the broad tree'd area following.



This is about the same elevation as the area with which I am associating it in Yellowstone if I'm not mistaken.  tha could account in part for the similarities I see with ponderosa pine, spruce, and fir.

Amazing.

Fairview Point at  8800 ft. offers views of plateaus and mountains.

Natural Bridge wasn't formed by a stream like true natural bridges.  More accurately an arch, it was carved by rain and frost erosion acting from the top of the rock.

                                                         Off to one side of Natural Bridge

Even the clouds posed for Carol at Natural Bridge.

More clouds and blue sky

...and over the cliff behind me.

This is the view from Rainbow Point at the southern terminus of the 18 mile park road..

These mountains in the background possibly are the Navajo Mountains with the Kaibab Plateau at top right 90 miles away in Arizona (North Rim of the G.C. is in the Kaibab Plateau area).

Called The Poodle, this hoodoo northwest of Rainbow Point seems to pose for the camera. Reputed to be difficult to find, I'm proud of this photo.

With the sun going down and a 3 hour drive to get back to Zion Lodge, I beat a hasty retreat from Bryce.  The outside temperature was 54 degrees, and it was twilight.  Since there are virtually no guardrails on the Zion highway on the east side (you saw that road in the previous Blog), I elected to go back via Cedar City and a canyon between 10,000 ft. elevations, which I had never been in before, much less after dark.  I said many prayers along the way as signs for trucks showed  6% - 10% grades and 4 sets of taillights in front of me guided the way.  That was one time I was thankful that I was not the lead dog; and the scene may have changed around me; but the one in front of me remained those 4 sets of taillights!

 When I pulled into a parking place in front of the dorm, my headlights lit up these beautiful, night-blooming white, very poisonous flowers.

I slept like a baby.

Out the East Entrance of Zion and on toward Bryce Nat'l. Pk.

Got a late start this morning and tarried too long at an artist's gallery, but it all was good.

Anxious to see the East Entrance 'coming and going'.  The view will be so varied from both directions.

Here we go, headed East...

Canyon Junction...as we leave the 3 mile road that connects the Lodge up the Canyon with Utah Hwy. 9, we are headed east on Hwy.9 for 23 miles of AWESOME mountain scenery until we turn north on US 89 outside the Park.  Hold onto your seats, folks; pictures don't do it justice; you just have to experience it yourselves.  "Come on down."

The view changes at every bend in the road

There's a tour bus (that rectangular dark spot) on the upper portion of this U-turn where you meet yourself coming back..several of those on this trip...and no guard rails!!

AWESOME...and there's that bend in the road to the left

AND AWESOME

                                                      AND AWESOME SOME MORE

...and the sights just go on and on and on.

This is approacking the first tunnel.

Tunnel 1, Window 1

Out the window of a slowly moving car

You're not allowed to stop

Tunnel 1, Window 2

Emerging from Tunnel 1.

And you can't even see the bottom of this spire

The surface texture of the rocks is changing on the east-facing rocks

The light at the end of Tunnel 2!

Around every bend a different view

the trees and vegetation are changing...must be more moisture on the east side

Son Warren could tell us all about these rocks, geologist that he is.  They just LOOK DIFFERENT to me.

Pctures from a moving car window aren't always perfect, but this road doesn't always accomodate pull-offs for photo ops!  It's often 1,000 ft. down...with no guard rail.

 

 

Even the clouds are different...and always that blue, blue sky

These rocks look "softer"...their folds are more rounded

I believe this is the west exposure of Checkerboard Mesa



                                                           This IS Checkerboard Mesa

Checkerboard Mesa zoomed in

Checkerboard Mesa from afar

Leaving the East boundary of Zion and headed for US 89 at Carmel Junction, then north to Bryce National Park with a stop or 2 along the way.

We are losing altitude, the starkness of the rock cliffs and canyons, and the arid  vegetation.  "On a clear day, you can see forever."...a little overcast today and many fires in the area.

It's just another canyon, folks!!  Just notice though how the vegetation has changed.

Even the flowers by the side of the road have responded to increased moisture with brighter, more prolific plumage

Definitely different folliage and plant life...but still that big sky look

Bingham Art Galleries.  Imagine a fine art gallery 'out here'.  Let's stop and see what they are about.

 The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts carries on the Maynard Dixon legacy of southwestern artists.  From the Southwest that Thomas Moran made famous and those who followed, not necessarily in his footsteps, with their own styles and forms of art the Thunderbird (Maynard Dixon's logo) Foundation

preserves his Utah homestead and gallery and educates the public about his contributions to American art.

The Board and staff were putting together the final touches for a fundraising gala to be held the evening I passed through.  Many beautiful (and expensive) paintings were hung for auction as were some small canvases priced lower in the $1,000 range.  See following....

Ray Roberts' cowgirl crossing a stream was one of my favorites

This quadrant of an oil was by Kate Starling, one of the artists to whose paintings I was most attracted.

mountain meadow by Ron Rencher

Carol, I wish you could have seen Spike Ress' clouds

This one looks more like Cedar Breaks National Monument...also a little like Bryce.

This is Edith and Maynard Dixon's home, situated along a wonderful stream and looking at an inspiring view of the mountains to the east.

...the mountains to the east...

There were beautiful flowering plants and a wonderful trumpet vine covering the side of a shed, to which hummingbirds flocked; but they were camera shy!

Moving on up the road toward Bryce.

Clouds for Carol

And that blue, blue sky for all

More clouds for Carol

A stormy sky for the the rest of us

Carol's clouds are lifting

There's still threatening weather in the distance

The sun reflected off the scattering clouds.

I was so concentrating on the clouds, I omitted the landscape, which is more like much of Wyoming and Montana as the river valley, fed by the Asay River, spawns fields and farms.

The scenery is about to change again as we enter Dixie National Forest, which covers a large portion of south central Utah.  How many shades of coral and sage green can you see?

Red Canyon is an introduction to Bryce, except we are "down among the hoodoos"...by definition: a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.  Hoodoo - to cast a spell.

Enlarged for you to see the faces of Pharoahs and Sphinx...I'll bet you didn't know they were here !

Zion doesn't have the only tunnels through this beautiful, colorful rock.  There are 2 here together.  Look closely, and you can barely see the shadow of the opening of the 2nd one around the bend.

Destination!

Bryce will be tomorrow's entry.

We're finally here.