Bryce Canyon

Welcome to Utah! I had no concept of the amount of beautiful National Parks in this state. Bob did his research online and found a fun Motel, RV park with camping complete with restaurant and store right outside the city of Hatch, Utah. Pictures of this will come in another post.

Our first day in the area we drove one hour NE to Bryce Canyon. Now we took over 75 pictures of this place on 4 different devices! I have chosen 24 of them to share so I'll shrink most of them and you can do the slide show thing after you read the captions :)

Bryce Canyon Lodge

Hoodoos

Yes, you read it right. I've done some research and am still not sure where the name came from, except that the Indians could have thought this up. I think, and its only my opinion, that it means noone knows what is holding these rocks up except for magic! Let me know what you think. This was the coolest hike we've done so far. If we had one more day, I'd make Bob go back with me to do this park again.

 Just in case you think this is a small area when you see the hiking pictures, here are multiple pictures taken from several different areas of the park. It really is quite majestic. Who says the rocks don't cry out to our Lord Jesus?

 Hiking

 
Here we are at the top and ready to descend. It is recommended by the Rangers that you do the loop clock-wise to be able to keep your footing easier. Yep, I agree!








Here we are enjoying the views going down thinking it is all about this...smooth paths and easy, switch-back paths.




Here you can see closer up the formations and how cool this hike really was.





















I thought these 2 hoodoos on the right looked like a child and his/her dog from the back, ha! (Child on the right,dog on the left).






Here's Bob trying to scare me again. The look on his face was funny when he actually started looking at how to get down :)








On the back third of the hike there are several steps cut into the rock and severe switch-backs to traverse to arrive back at the top. The elevation change was slightly less than 800 feet so I was able to walk it without a problem.

On the left is looking up to the top, on the right is looking back down into the slot. Amazing, just amazing!




 Critters









What is a blog without the resident creatures that call it home?

We had this little chipmunk pose,






ran across a rattle snake that looked fat and happy as he slithered across the path and into the red rock,



and this black bird that was resting on the post and could have cared less how close Bob got!






Last of all, we left the park and traveled a short distance to the back of the canyon and hiked to this waterfall. All in all, a spectacular day!

What a dam!

After we went to the south rim of Grand Canyon and on the way to stay in Page, Arizona, our CRV started making squealing tire noises.The next day, to be safe, we found a tire store that put it on the 'rack' and checked the back brakes. Both pads had to be ordered and installed. We were fortunate to get it done in less than 4 hours. Our plan had been to visit the north rim of Grand Canyon before driving to Hatch, Utah for a 3 day stop. Alas, half the day was gone and so went our desire to do all the extra driving. Sooo, on to Hatch we went. The city of Page was very nice and that is where part of Lake Powell sits because right outside of town is where the Glen Canyon Dam is:










Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the town of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second largest artificial lake in the country, extending upriver well into Utah. (Taken in part from Wikipedia)(Really, why rethink what they say so well??)





Glen Canyon's dam was based on the Hoover dam. Construction on the bridge began in late 1956, to aid in the construction of the dam.  When finished, the Glen Canyon Bridge was in itself a marvel of engineering: 1,271 feet (387 m) long and rising 700 feet (210 m) above the river, it was the highest bridge of its kind in the United States and one of the highest in the world.

By 1959, the bridge itself was a major tourist attraction and it was said that "motorists [were] driving miles out of their way just to be thrilled by its dizzying height". (Yep, more from Wikipedia!)

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and read all about the bridge and dam and Lake Powell. The locals are quite right to be proud of such a marvelous feat.

Painted Desert and Grand Canyon - South Rim

On the drive to Flagstaff, Arizona, we stopped at the Painted Desert which also contains a petrified forest. Unfortunately, due to time restraints, we couldn't go the full length of this park to see the forest, but did stop and see the desert and a building restored from the Old Route 66 era.

This adobe style building used to serve customers on the hot, searing, desert roads a refreshing cold drink or ice cream. It had a full menu of fast foods from back in the 50's. Many of the menu items were priced at $.10-.20!

Now the building serves as a Ranger Station and museum/book store. 






These little guys were all over. It looked similar to a Pine Lizard and was long and fast!










Have you ever wondered where different sites get their name? This one should not puzzle you at all. It is the grandest of the grand and such a marvel that even though we've been there 3 times now, we still stand in awe of God's wonderful creation here on earth for our pleasure.





I'm going to try a different tactic for the next few blogs that will have a large amount of pictures. I will post some as medium size and most as small. If you click on the first one after reading (if you want to bother :-) about the pictures themselves, you can view them in full size and use the right or left arrow key to plow through them all. It is just too hard to leave this one or that one out.

 

It took about 2 hours to drive into the canyon. The original plan was to visit the south rim this day and the north rim the next. More about how that all went later...

 
And here we are. Revisiting a portion of the hike we did 8 years ago. We hiked with a group from the north rim to the south rim with a 2 night stay in Phantom Ranch by the Colorado River. The views are so spectacular.





The picture here to the left shows a mule train that has just ascended from Phantom Ranch. We encountered large groups of not very well prepared visitors on the path. I wonder about the wisdom of some parents at times.





This is a shot of me from the lower path to show some of the elevation. To the right is a squirrel that was very adept at posing and begging for food. All the squirrels along this path were quite friendly and fat.







We weren't sure what this bird was but it also was begging and friendly. Now the picture to the right shows a deep gorge that was part of our original hike in 2006. Even I have to admit I'm not physically able to do that kind of activity again. :-(


 Here is a condor who was hunting for water. There was a small puddle it spotted from overhead and it circled and landed on a wall. The crowds surrounded it but it cautiously jumped to the ground to sip before taking flight. To the right is El Tovar Lodge.

The next trip in we decided we must take this train to where ever it goes.







This sign says no ATV vehicles allowed. Really? What about this drops off into a deep abyss does anyone not understand you don't want to go there, period?





And then we rode off into the sunset. God couldn't have given us a nicer ending to a nicer day!