Tim Smith
After spending 3 days in Zion NP, we went to Bryce Canyon National Park on Friday. I’ve heard different opinions on which one people like better. I really haven’t figured out yet which one I like better. Zion and Bryce are only about an hour apart, but the landscape is completely different. Also, Bryce Canyon can pretty much be explored in one day where Zion takes several days if you want to see everything.
We decided to go Friday and explore all we could and if there were things we still needed to see, we would go back Saturday. We were able to see everything we wanted to see on Friday. As usual we stopped in at the Visitor Center when we got there and grabbed a map of the park and the literature that they had.
Time to head into the park! Our first stop was at Sunset Point where we were able to find parking and made our way to the first viewpoint to get our first glimpse of Bryce Canyon. Holy cow the first peek into the canyon is breathtaking. It looks like an alien landscape. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s a beautiful combination of hoodoos and other strange rock formations.
What the heck is a hoodoo? A hoodoo is defined as a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin. Hoodoo. Fun to say too. 🙂
That definition doesn’t particularly tell me a whole lot, so here’s an example. This is Thor’s Hammer. Apparently, the most photographed hoodoo in all of Bryce Canyon. The shadows were just right to make it kinda difficult to get a good picture of it.
The first view from Sunset point reveals a stunning landscape.
From Sunset point, we took the short hike over to Sunrise Point. And from Sunrise Point, we started our hike down into the canyon. We hiked a combination of trails that led us down into the canyon and through some of the pine forest at the bottom and eventually led us back to Sunset Point and where we parked. Some of the coolest and strangest landscape you’ll ever see. The hike wasn’t as strenuous as the day before but it was still kind of steep in spots and ended up being about 4 1/2 miles. Here are some pics from that hike and I’ll post a link at the bottom to the Gallery page where you can find the gallery with all the pics.
Once done with the hike, we hopped back in the truck and drove over to Inspiration Point and Bryce Point. And then drove up to Natural Bridge.
Once we left there, we were starving. So we decided to head toward home and stop somewhere along the way to get a bite to eat. We stopped at Bryce Canyon Pines Cafe. It’s a little cafe that claimed they were famous for their home-made pies. So naturally, we had to try one! That might have been the best blueberry pie a-la-mode I’ve ever had.
It was the sight of this unfortunate series of events. 😂🤣😂
Here’s the Gallery page where you can find the rest of the pictures.
If you’ve made it this far thanks for reading!
