Grand Circle Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park

 I visited Bryce Canyon more than 30 years ago, a quick day stopover, without realizing its geological siginificance.  This vast amphitheatre filled with hoodoos is actually at the top of the Grand Staircase, a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that extends 100 miles through Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon.  The sedimentary rock layers here "preserve more Earth history than any other place on earth", so claimed the National Park Service (NPS).  It has remained relatively undisturbed for the last 600 million years.  

It is fascinating geology - would have been great to have a geologist with us on this entire Grand Circle trip.  This time around I am visiting with a photographer's eye, watching the changing light on the landscape at sunset and sunrise.  We drove the scenic drive on our second day but the different perspectives of the red hoodoos became a blur as we went from viewpoint to viewpoint.  Once home, it took me a while to sort through the few hundred images to figure out which image is from where.  It makes sense for me to just pick one or two from each view point for this post in order to keep this from being repetitive.  What provided the different experience was a short hike down one of the trails into the canyon at the end of the afternoon - it was remarkable looking up from the midst of the hoodoos.

Grand staircase diagram from the National Park Service.  Click on the link to read an explanation of this iconic geological feature.

The Panorama from our first stop at Sunset Point 

 

As it looked like golden hour had already started, we headed towards Paria View supposedly a good place for sunset.  We had hoped to drop by Inspiration Point, another sunset spot, but the parking lot was blocked off (we didn't know at the time but heard the following day that a couple had fallen to their deaths that day).  

View from Paria Point

This was one of my favourite views at Bryce Point with the swirling lines of the hoodoos.

As we were at the top of the Grand Staircse, it is awesome watching the threatening clouds like warring gods approaching.  We didn't stay for sunset as there wasn't much of one and we were hungry!

But I did manage to get up for sunrise - well worth it!

Before sunrise from Sunrise Point

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Sunrise over the plateau

It was magical watching the amphitheatre gradually lighting up

This awesome tree teetering on the edge of the canyon caught the first light

Inspiration Point, one of the most popular spots on the rim, offered different perspectives of the amphitheatre.

Close up of the hoodoo clusters

Inspiration Point - hoodoos and red cliffs as far as the eye can see

Limestone too

Panorama at Sunset Point

Queen's Garden Trail just below the rim at Sunset Point

We went back to the lodge for lunch (the convenience of staying inside the park) and noticed the huge pillars at the front.  Bryce Canyon Lodge is 100 years old built from using local material.  The two-storey lodge is built on a stone base with oversized log framing.  A 52-foot long log beam supported the roof of the lobby. (Wikipaedia) It is reminiscent of many of the historic National Park Lodges.

A surprise sighting of a Western Bluebird near the lodge!  So surprised I could only manage a phone capture!

A not so rare sighting of a raven, except that this one is huge, almost the size of a hawk.

After lunch we headed towards Rainbow Point, which, together with Yovimpa Point, are poised at the end of the scenic drive.  It is a stunning lookout with the added bonus of expansive views of the surrounding area, putting the Bryce amphitheatre in context.  I missed Yovimpa Point but according to the NPS, you could see the various steps of the Grand Staircase in the distance.

Rainbow Point

Contrasting shades of the red and white rocks pervaded at Rainbow Point.  In the distance, I could imagine seeing some of the grey, white and vermillioin cliffs that comprised the Grand Staircase. 😉😉

From Rainbow Point we drove back to each of the viewpoints along the scenic drive - direction reversed so we don't have to be making left turns at every stop (smart decision by our driver).  By this time, we started to make quick stops because rain clouds were threatening.

Bryce Canyon National Park Map

Black Birch Canyon - a misnomer, according to NPS.  Apparently the trees are more likely aspen that were mistaken for black birch.😃

Ponderosa Canyon so named because of the huge ponderosa pines on the canyon floor, some of them measuring more than 5 ft in diameter and over 150 ft tall (NPS)


Here I zoomed in to the canyon floor where I noticed a white opening.  Looks like a castle rock..

Agua Canyon

Another shot of Agua Canyon where, according to the NPS, two prominent hoodoos command attention. On the left, is the taller of the two towers, "The Hunter." To the right is a hoodoo commonly referred to as the "Rabbit" or alternatively the "Backpacker."  (for what it's worth)  Maybe it's the angle of the shot, I couldn't see the one on the right clearly.

Natural Bridge - and here's an interesting comment on the NPS website. "Like some other features in the park, Natural Bridge is not what its name would suggest. Natural bridges are formed by the movement of a stream or river cutting through rock. The impressive feature seen here is instead a natural arch, or window, formed primarily by the expansion of ice in cracks deep within."  Hmm...I appreciate an honest writer...

Fairview Point - "Farview Point is appropriately named. Navajo Mountain, 90 miles away on the border of Utah and Arizona, can be seen on all but the worst days." It looks like this name has the blessing of the NPS, for a change.

With the sun getting low in the sky, we decided to make one last attempt to hike at least part of the canyon.  We headed down the Queen's Garden Trail from Sunrise Point, with no intention of finishing the hike other than to get some experience of what it feels like to be down in the canyon.

I would have said this looks like the Queen's statue, and other people on the web thinks so too (they called their similar image Queen Victoria hoodoo) but apparently there is another one that looked like the actual Queen Victoria statue on a pedestal.  Who is know which one is the real one!

Views along the trail with some of the hoodoos at eye level

The way up was obviously more strenuous because the rim is at 8000 ft.  But we followed the rule to allow for double the time coming up and we arrived in time for dinner.   Was even able to catch this young mule deer out for its evening snack - a wildlife sighting, a fitting end to our second day at Bryce Canyon.  The following day we moved on to Capital Reef National Park, the last leg of our Grand Circle tour.

Grand Circle Utah - Zion National Park

 Zion National Park's steep red cliffs continue to impress no matter how many times one has visited.  It has one of the most scenic drives that I've seen in all the National Parks I have visited.  The drive-in from either entrance over the red road is equally breathtaking.  This time, we drove in from the east and timed it with the golden hour.  We couldn't help but stopped at every turn, so we covered a half hour's distance in two hours.  The amazing thing was, when we left the same way three days later, we couldn't help but stop again as this time we were looking at the cliffs from a different angle.  

We spent three nights in the park, and had time to sit around to soak in the scenery without too much rushing around.  We took leisurely walks down easy trails, walked as far as our bodies would take us without overdoing it.  There is stunning scenery for every ability and you can see below that even on easy/moderate trails, there were jaw-dropping views.

This panorama confronted us shortly after we entered from the east

Checkerboard Mountain, one of the first stunning landmarks on the red drive - the Zion Mount Carmel Highway.  I remembered the drive as much redder when I first visited in the 70"s but it could be just the initial shock of seeing the red carpet rolled out for us.  On the other hand, the 26 mile red drive was built in the 1920's and 1930's - so I wouldn't be surprised that the colour has faded after a hundred years of traffic!  But it must have been repaved...?

This is the entrance to the shorter of the two Zion-Mount Carmel tunnels.  The longer one is 1.1 mile long and seemed to go on forever but then in the middle of it, all of a sudden you glimpsed a light, but it's not the end - just a window opening on the side of the tunnel.  It was truly quite amazing!

Red cliffs surrounded the valley - this is golden hour glow

In  the morning, we walked the Riverside Walk as far as we could, basically until we saw hikers wading into the river outfitted to confront the famous Narrows.

Just before the narrows

Walkers were much entertained watching the rock climbers hard at work

A close-up shot

The early spring green provided stunning contrasts to the red rock face

Even on an easy trail like the Pa'rus Trail, the red rocks were at their showy best

In fact the best sunset view in the park without too much effort is from the bridge overlooking the Pa'rus Trail just inside the south entrance.  Photographers came here for the iconic sunset shot - but no pedestrians were allowed on the bridge. The ranger drove by to warn us to get off it so after I took my not-quite-sunset shot, I went down to the riverbank and looked for another viewpoint.  As it was, I found another spot right on the Pa'rus Trail.

The view on either side of the Virgin River along the Pa'rus Trail

The setting sun touching the tips of the mountains - this is all one could do for sunset because of Zion being in a valley.  The best we could hope for are reflections of the sun on the red rocks and clouds.  The same seems to apply for sunrise as you can see from the photo below.  Without a strenuous hike in the dark on some treacherous trail,  this is all I could get for a sunrise in the valley...

Another early riser - wild turkey lady

The red rocks did catch the glow shortly after sunrise

I did the one "real" hike on part of the Kayenta Trail, and the views were totally worth the effort.  While there were some challenging rocky sections, it was a moderate hike, doable on a fine day.  I didn't get up to the Upper Emerald Pool but the Middle and Lower Emerald pools were a tat disappointing because they were almost puddles - hard to believe that there is so little water when it is only early spring.

Expansive view of the valley from the Kayenta Trail

How unusual to see cactus plants growing in the same spot as deciduous trees

Middle Emerald Pool

Lower Emerald Pool

Doesn't look hard but it's steep when you're tired

Love the different views of the valley with the river meandering through

The notorious "Angel's Landing" - best I could do is take a shot of it caught by the golden hour light.

The Court of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the shortest trail in the park - that we could do!

The Watchman, iconic sandstone mountain summit standing watch over the south entrance of the park

Eagle's Crag just outside the south entrance to the park

The morning drive as we left the park took almost as long as the drive in, with us still stopping wherever we could safely park.  We were still struck dumb by the stunning views and you could understand why...

Close up of the rocks - looks like wood!

Panoramas give a better sense of the grandeur confronting us, but close-ups like the one below could really put one in awe!

With this amazing rock, we said goodbye to Zion and move on to the next awesome spot - Bryce Canyon National Park.  It is supposedly only an hour away but it took us two hours just to get out of Zion!