Today was our first day to explore around this area and so we started by driving up through Red Canyon 15 miles or so to Bryce Canyon National Park. It is a terrific drive through Red Canyon; lots of hoodoos which is the name they give to big vertical sandstone formations which sort of look like giant decorated columns or statues.
We turned into Bryce and drove up to the fee booth for the park, showed our federal access card in lieu of paying $30 and were told by the Ranger at the gate that the features of the park close to the booth were packed with visitors and driving all the way down to the end the park road to Rainbow Point would be a good idea if we wanted to miss the big crowds. She was right.
Eighteen miles in we came to the parking lot for Rainbow Point and got out to peer over the edge of the canyon. It is truly a spectacular wonderland of hoodoo shapes which resemble castles, statues, chess pieces, robots and almost any other fanciful shape you can imagine. The vistas from this 9100′ elevation viewpoint are truly magnificent. During the Reagan administration, the Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, removed the protected designation adjacent lands enjoyed and was just about ready to commence strip mining in the valleys below Bryce when reason won out and Watt lost his job. While we were here, we spotted some Western Tanagers which look to be about 10 times the size of the tiny Tanagers I have seen in the hummingbird house at the San Diego Zoo.
As we drove back towards the fee station, we pulled out at numerous little paved sections adjacent to the road where we could see new perspectives of this amazing park. The crowds started to increase at each pullout and many languages were heard. I think about half the visitors were from abroad and they all seemed quite adept at blocking all the views with their bodies while taking selfies with their phones. The backgrounds in these pictures were probably very nice but the subject matter in the foreground was funny-looking.
After a few more pullouts where English was not heard, we elected to bail from Bryce and return Monday when maybe some of the tourists and locals will be gone. We exited the park and turned back east into the Grand Staircase/Escalante for a bit until pulling out at Kodachrome Basin State Park.
Kodachrome Basin is a gorgeous area with more spectacular geology and many big, free-standing columns of rock that seem distinctly phallic in shape. Heterosexual women would probably love this place. I am a heterosexual male and I thought it was pretty spiffy myself. We were within the park late in the afternoon and that seems to be a terrific time to watch the amazing effects light and shadow have on the rock formations. The place is gorgeous.
We took a few pix during today’s travels and you can see them if you click here