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.
This is not going to be a very warm day I fear. Looks like I’ll be keeping my jeans and sweatshirt on. It is very cloudy
and cold. Tom is in shorts, though he is wearing a sweatshirt as well. One good point though is that the park is not as crowded ad Zion.
Our plan is to drive the 18 miles to the end of Bryce Canyon, take a short hike and then drive north but stopping at some of the 13 scenic points along the way.
At the Visitors Center there was a sign saying that brown bear sightings were high, so to be careful. I’ve got my camera poised just in case!
It’s cold out there but surprisingly not windy. This is Yovimpa Point and the views are extensive. We take the one mile Bristle Cone Loop Trail. What a difference from yesterday. There are a few people around but in ones and twos and not in hordes. It is also very quiet - the sound of solitude.
The first part of the walk is Douglas firs. The Bristle Cone Pines are a bit further in. They are really old. Some over a thousand years old. Some look dead but there are a few younger and healthier looking ones. For the oldest living Bristle Cone pines you have to pay a visit to the White Mountains in California. Tom and I visited there back in 2000.
We stopped at Agua Canyon and Tom took some photos. I stayed in the car and wrote as I have not thawed out properly yet.
Natural Bridge was our next stop. This was a ‘wow’ sight. The bridge is just in front of the viewing platform. While I was taking some photos, a bus turned up and the passengers and guide surrounded me. It was fascinating hearing the guide talk about how the arch was formed. He then went on to talk about the little aspen trees in front of us. How they were related to the large aspen treee behind us. They are all connected by the root system. If the trees are burnt down, the new shoots will appear after a while and starting forming new trees. Well I never!
Fairview Point is the next stop. Here there are extensive views for probably 100 miles. Off to the right in the distance is what looks like an extinct volcano.
Our next stop is Bryce Point. This is the southern point of the Bryce Amphtheater and another ‘wow’ location. Thousands of hoodoos here which look remarkably like the Terra Cotta Army. We could see hikers way down on the Under-the-Rim Trail making their way to Inspiration Point.
[Click the image for a larger version]
We make our last stop at Sunset Point. Excuse me while I get my breath back. We decided on the spur of the moment to do the Navajo Loop Trail. We looked down on the people below on the trail and thought it looked fun. It would be great to get down among the hoodoos. So we foolishly started the climb down, passing some perspiring people walking up. I say foolishly because I did not have my pack so we had no water. But we had our cameras. There were many photo ops.
It took twenty minutes to walk down. The last part was through a narrow gorge. There was a huge cave-in here a few years ago and this trail was closed for two years.
For half an hour we walked along the canyon floor looking up at the hoodoos. Then we started the climb up. We did
not rush it and stopped often to take photos. It took twice as long to climb up but we are convinced we did it the right way. On the way down we were in the full sun but on the way up we were mostly in the shade. And, yes, the sun is now shining and it is pretty warm. Tom said he felt like doing the Rocky dance (like the movie) when he got to the top but he didn’t want to embarrass me!
It is now 3 o’clock and we have spent a very happy and contented six hours here. Tom says this has been the best day so far.
On the way home, just north of Mt. Carmel on Highway 89, Tom saw a sign which said ‘Maynard Dixon Country’. It was outside a gallery so he pulled in. Maynard Dixon was a painter of the American west and he died in 1946. Tom has a friend who is an art dealer and who used to buy and sell a lot of his work back in the 1970’s and Tom has always admired Maynard Dixon’s work. The sign said the exhibition ran until September 30. Of course I’d never heard of him.
The gallery looked like a brand new house and we were a bit reluctant to walk in through the front door. Inside though it was very definitely a gallery. We were greeted by Sue Bingham and soon found out that not only did she and her husband used to live in San Jose but they knew Tom’s friend, Ron. We looked at a few pictures but fell in love with a Maynard Dixon print called Navajoland. Not too many prints have been made of this particular painting. Anyway, we bought it and it will remind us of this holiday.
On our way back to the hotel, we picked up a pizza which we ate in our room. Afterwards I tried to find a hotel in Page, Arizona, for tomorrow night but everything was booked up. In the end we booked another night here at the Holiday Inn Express in Kanab.
September 26 2007 04:10 pm | Further Afield
