Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

On our way down to Las Vegas we stopped off at a WillowWind RV Park that allowed us to visit both Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

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Very nice campsite with a shady back-in for us.

Anne took this as we were setting up, no slides out yet!!

The following day we set off for Bryce Canyon which meant a drive through Zion national Park to reach it, so I will not steal Zion’s thunder!! But I will say it involved quite a steep climb and a tunnel.

We reached Bryce Canyon about midday and boy oh boy is this place spectacular. It involves an 18 mile drive up the canyon and every stop seems to get better and better. For those of you who have never been there, Bryce is famous for its “hoodoos”. These are tall skinny spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins and “broken” lands with multiple levels of strata in them, all of different colours. The ones in Bryce Canyon are hundreds of feet high!! So with that explanation here they are.

Our first site of hoodoos, spectacular but it gets better.
It was quite hot!!
A complete vista of hoodoos.
The thing about them is, it seems as though a sculptor has carved them, when it is really just wind and rain.
Thor’s hammer for obvious reasons.
This angle shows it better.
More carvings, look at the colours.
Another set of figures!!
And a close up. The one on the right is almost a human statue!! And all done by nature.

We moved up the route and discovered this.

A natural arch carved by wind and rain.
Amazing sight!
And more hoodoos.
They get better.
Just to prove that we were both there although we got photo bombed.

We got to the end of the canyon route where there was a controlled burn going on, so there were lots of fire fighters.

Looking back along the entire canyon. At this point we were over 9,000ft above sea level!!

We then tracked our way back filling in the bits we missed and I climbed Inspiration Point, which made me puff a bit, climbing 500ft at 9,000ft does that, but the view was worth it.

Just when you think you are hoodoo’d out this appears. A massive field stretching into the distance.
It’s getting late look at the shadows.
And more!!
Impressive colours.

There is one other place I ought to mention, Red Canyon. This is on the road up to Bryce Canyon and it has some pretty impressive red rocks in its own right. But in the evening sunset they are something else!!

Red Canyon on the way up to Bryce.
Impressive rocks.
Shows how high they are when someone stands in front of them.
And the road goes through part of the rock.
On the way back from Bryce the Red Canyon in the sunset. Wow!!
As red as you can get!!

The next day saw us visit Zion National Park which we had previously just driven through. A different type of park, but equally as spectacular with its massive rock faces, the 1.1 mile tunnel to the top, and at the top so many types of rock formations.

As you enter the park you see these massive rock faces.
And they get bigger and multi coloured.
That is not snow. It is as tall as El Capitan in Yosemite.
Huge curves in the rock. To the right of this is the tunnel.
Looking back down the valley.
And they get higher as we climb towards the tunnel.
Queuing to go through the tunnel.
After the tunnel it flattens out and there are lots of sandy valleys and rock canyons carved by water.
And layers of rock and colour.
From red to white.
Impressed they made the road red to match the rock.
Look carefully, that is me sat just below a huge curve of rock.
How’s that for strata!!.
And this is called Chequerboard rock. Vertical stripes down the strata caused by water freezing and cracking the rock
A huge red fault line.
On the way back down this is a window into the tunnel. It goes to the left up through the rock and is 1.1 miles long.
A view down the valley with me in the way!!
Anne framed by the curve in the rock.

After this we moved on to Las Vegas, one of the subjects of my next post, but I will always remember the hoodoos!!

 

 

 

 

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