Bryce Canyon
Steve and I saw Bryce Canyon for the first time and fell in love. What a magical place!
After touring Peekaboo Canyon and the White Wave putside of Kanab, we started the two hour drive to Bryce Canyon. The only open restaurant we could find en route was a German bakery, so lunch was apple turnovers, still hot from the oven. Yum!
Our friend Jim Hall from Tampa was our guide and host at Bryce Canyon. Jim did a career pivot last year; he now works for the National Park Service and is the Engineer at Bryce Canyon. We parked our car at Sunset Point, and Jim drove us to Bryce Point.
We found ourselves on the rim of a huge natural amphitheater filled with crazy, colorful limestone formations called hoodoos. It's hard to describe the landscape because it felt like we were on another planet. Mind-blowing!
We hiked along the rim back to Sunset Point, stopping often to exclaim at the strange, wonderful hoodoos and the vibrant colors ranging from yellow to pink to red. According to Paiute legend, the Legend People were turned to stone by the trickster Coyote as punishment for bad behavior. The hoodoos did indeed look like crowds of people, some standing straight in formation and other twisting and leaning drunkenly.
From Sunset Point, we hiked down to the canyon floor on the Navajo Loop Trail. At the start of the trail, we could see the switchbacks leading 800 feet down, and tried not to think about having to hike back UP.
As we zig-zagged our way down, we could see the hoodoos up close, and they soon towered over us.
At the bottom we were surprised to see a couple of douglas firs that had somehow managed to grow quite tall between closely-spaced hoodoos.
As we hiked, we paused frequently so Jim could answer questions from park visitors. People trust and respect the park ranger uniform and distinctive hat. It was fun to see Jim in his element. And it was fascinating to learn about his engineering projects at Bryce Canyon (ask him about the high-tech dry toilet that he built - it's way cool).
Hiking back up to Sunset Point on the rim was challenging, but there were plenty of interesting sights to distract us, like two natural stone bridges and the famous Thor's Hammer. We jumped back into our car and enjoyed a delightful evening with Jim and his wife Sharon at their artsy home. Thanks, Jim and Sharon! We hope to be back again one day to explore more of this spectacular national park!
