From Johnny G:Bryce is the smaller and younger sibling to Zion NP. The Park is named for Ebenezer Bryce, a hard luck pioneer rancher famous for his saying that Bryce is "a hell of a place to lose a cow!". The land he describes captures your imagination with it's fanciful Hoodoos. Bryce is actually an amphitheater and the Hoodoos took on their unusual shapes because the top layer of rock, the "cap-rock" is harder than the layers beneath it. As the softer layers underneath the cap-rock erode, the Hoodoos are formed. "Hoodoo, a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion. Hoodoo, to cast a spell.". These shapes were formed starting 10 million years ago and the process of erosion results in new shapes and continues every season. As you look upon them, especially as the light changes during the day, these formations take on new shapes as if by a magic spell.
Diametrically opposite of Zion National Park, at Bryce one looks down into the canyon and the shapes and forms of the Hoodoos formed by millions of years of erosion. The most fantastic and largest of the formations is the Bryce Amphitheater, composed of various formations called Thor's Hammer, The Queen's Garden, Wall Street and Silent City.
As usual, words can't describe what the eye sees, nor may a camera fully reflect the stunning beauty of these formations of sandstone laid down over so many millions of years. Instead, the camera serves as a memory for the human eye to recall many years later.
We arrived with snow on the ground and in 33 degree temps. Yikes, what a difference from Zion and our 60 degree temps. The rain at Zion was snow at Bryce, over 3,000 feet higher. Believe me, during our hikes into Bryce Canyon, our lungs felt the difference!
The view of the Hoodoos from the Canyon floor are stunning, but more of a singular perspective versus the gestalt from above. Looking up at a single 600 foot Hoodoo like the one in the Queen's Garden versus the perspective of the whole garden from above could be the subject of a 1,000 Art History Ph.D. dissertations.
Oh, did I mention that when you hike down, you must also hike up to get out of the Canyon? If the Hoodoo is 600 feet tall, and the Canyon Rim is above that, hmmm, you get the picture. But worth the effort! This wasn't the first time we thanked our friends the Grazianos for the loan of their hiking sticks.
Our Bryce exploration was more or less as recommended by the Fodor's (thanks Chrissy!) guidebook; an 18 mile drive to the end of the canyon (technically it's a Mesa) and Rainbow Point with stops at each viewpoint as we made our way back to the Visitor's Center. As we had arrived from Zion in the early afternoon this gave us a chance for lunch at the venerable Bryce Canyon Lodge, built in 1924 for the Union Pacific Railroad to draw tourists to Bryce and Zion. The drive back from Rainbow gave us an opportunity to take some photo's (Sarah's new Raven buddy) and scope out our plans for the next day, including our hikes.
On our afternoon drive we saw several prong horned antelope which quickly became a Sarah fav! So pretty but fast and we couldn't get a good picture of them. Unlike the Mule Deer which stodgily posed for photo's, as did the squirrels. While the Europeans gawked at the Mule Deer we paid them little mind as deer to us are a menace to our landscaping at home.
An interesting hiking side trip was to Mossy Cave and Falls, a less visited part of the Park. We had our own private waterfall surrounded by Hoodoos. After two hikes we were ready for some Two Buck Chuck (thank you Jay) and dinner at our rustic family run restaurant. We retired early in our homey cabin and looked forward to the next adventure, John Ford Country at Monument Valley!
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