Yesterday we took UT-12 past the Bryce Canyon National Park and down into Kodachrome Basin. While driving that route, we noted a low-intensity fire burning and emitting light, wispy smoke into the sky at Bryce’s southeast corner. We mentioned our observations to a ranger at Kodachrome Basin who informed us it was a controlled burn and the proper authorities were fully aware of the condition.
Today we drove into Bryce, hoping the light smoke would be gone so we could enjoy the normally crystal-clear skies at this spectacular National Park. We were able to use our geezer pass to enter the park, avoiding the $35 entrance fee ordinary mortals are required to pay if they want to go in. There is really only one road along the edge of the canyon which is actually a miles-long cliff of extraordinary multihued hoodoos and steep cliffs rising along the western edge of the Paunsaugant Plateau. The Paiute Indians that lived here prior to having their land stolen by pioneers and miners thought the hoodoos resembled the petrified remains of giant people turned to stone for being evil. The hoodoos don’t really look like pioneers or miners but they are magnificent.
We initially drove to the far end of the road where we found a viewpoint named Rainbow Point but finding a place to park our truck there was problematic because the BLM personnel monitoring the controlled burn had all driven their pickups to the Rainbow Point parking lot, keeping the park visitors out of luck. We headed back toward the main gate but the road has many pullouts and viewpoints and we took advantage of most of them. We had only gone about 4 miles when we pulled into a viewpoint and hopped out of the truck to get a good look at this stunning park. The wind was pretty stiff and increasing. While gazing at the wonderful cliffs and hoodoos, we noted that the wispy white smoke originally emanating from the controlled burn had substantially increased in volume and opacity. Soon, an enormous gray and brown cloud of smoke was overhead and, from our viewpoint, we could see open flames and exploding trees zooming over a ridge toward the park. The BLM guys parked at Rainbow Point called for air support because pretty soon we could see tiny helicopters flying in the fire area. It appeared that the controlled burn was now uncontrolled.
The smoke started to foul the views but we stopped at Natural Bridge and a few other viewpoints before calling it quits and leaving the park. About this time, a big raven landed on a log railing outside our truck and gave us the stink-eye until we gave him a cracker which promptly disappeared down his gullet. The views were still quite stunning for the first hour but after that everything we looked at was the color of smoke. We tried going out of the park and along a road running north away from the park but the smoke had beat us there and the only thing we spotted, other than gray-brown terrain, was a male pronghorn.
We did get some nice pictures before the smoke put a damper on the show. To see them, click the asterisk *