Road Trip - Day 6 - Kanab to Bryce Canyon
Kanab, UT to Bryce Canyon, UT
7.40 a.m. 57 degrees. Cold
Change of plan. We were going to Grand Canyon today but have decided to do that tomorrow then go on to Page for the night before going to Chinle.
[Click image for a larger version]
Today we are headed for Bryce Canyon. This is a smaller national park than Zion. It is 75 miles north of Kanab.
I was wearing shorts this morning but as it was cold when we went outside I now have jeans on and a sweatshirt.
According to the weather forecast, it is going to be a wet and windy weekend. Don’t know whether that will be good or bad. Will have to wait and see.
It is a very uneventful drive to Bryce. Very few cars on the road in either direction. We drive through the towns of Mt. Carmel, Orderville, Glendale, Long Valley Junction and Hatch. We don’t see anybody. At this time of the day surely there would at least be children going to school.
The trees are getting taller and there are fewer red mesas. We pass green fields with cattle and horses grazing.
I can now see red rocks to the right. Bryce Canyon must be behind them.
We turn right onto Highway 12. Now there is more traffic and there we were thinking we would have Bryce Canyon to ourselves. We begin to see strange rock formations which Bryce is famous for. We enter Dixie Forest and almost immediately we are in Red Canyon. Tom pulls over to take some photos. The rock formations are called hoodoos. When we go to the Visitors Center in Bryce, we will try and find out how they were formed.
At 9.05 we arrive at Bryce Canyon National Park. We show our pass and save another $25. After a visit to the restrooms (I was not impressed because the lock was broken and there was no toilet paper) we watched a 20 minute film of Bryce Canyon and learned how the hoodoos were formed. Quick geology lesson here. We are on what is called the Colorado Plateau. It is huge and extends into four states - Colorado, New Medico, Arizona and Utah. During the Cretaceous Period, 144 - 65 million years ago, the American continent was split in two and a seaway stretched from the north to the Gulf of Mexico. The plateau was huge island in the middle. The changing season, weather and water erosion over the remaining millions of years have carved the scenery I see before me now.
September 26 2007 | Further Afield | No Comments »
