A Grand Adventure - Day 8 (Bryce Canyon, Hoodoos, and Groping Foreigners)

The plan for the day was to get up early again (5 AM), eat breakfast and then head to Bryce Canyon.  Bryce was a little further away than Zion from us, but we expected it to be less busy so we were hoping we would not have to fight for a parking spot.  We arrived at the visitor's center around 7:30 and were almost the only vehicles there.  We soon discovered that the visitor's center and shuttles did not open/start until 8. Oh well. The early bird gets the worm, I guess.

When the visitor's center opened at 8 we used the restrooms and then came up with a plan for our hikes for the day.  A big section of the park called Rainbow Point was inaccessible because they were doing road work.  Fortunately, there was still plenty of the park to see, so we decided to start with Bryce Point and then hike Inspiration Point.

One thing I noted about Bryce was that the hikers seemed much less serious than those I saw at Zion.  At Zion, I noticed many of the hikers with expensive hiking gear - hiking sticks, backpacks, boots, etc...  At Bryce, the hikers seemed to be much more casual.

Our shuttle took us to Bryce Point which provided a gorgeous overview of the canyon.

This was a nice spot for pictures.  There were some foreigners who were taking some glamour shoot style pictures here that were really cracking us up with their dramatics (lots of flamboyant turns, poses, and hair flipping).  When a spot opened up, Greg offered to take a family photo of us and almost got a great picture of a guy's butt crack as he bent over to organize his camera gear apparently oblivious to us standing right next to him.

Captain Buttcrack's camera gear seen by Rogan's feet.

The cool geologic feature of Bryce is a structure called a hoodoo.  This is rock which is often bigger at the top than at the bottom.

Hoodoos!  Cool!
Hey, what are those puffy white things floating in the sky? 
We haven't seen those in weeks!

Here's a little Bill Nye the Science Guy to explain how hoodoos are formed.

It was much cooler at Bryce this day.  They claim it is generally 10-15 degrees cooler there than at Zion because of the altitude, but it was still in the 90's.  Fortunately, there were also some clouds so we got some shade from them from time to time.

Another dramatic shot of Rogan on a cliff's edge.  We always tried to do these out of sight of Beth to avoid her having heart palpitations.

Like the Grand Canyon and Zion there are very few safety barriers at Bryce.  The ground here was also more sandy and crumbly than the other parks so you did not feel quite as secure walking out to any ledges.  There are lots of places which you could take a long tumble. 

 

Even the dead things here have their own beauty.

Luke captured this nice flower pic

It's amazing that pretty flowers like this can grow
in this environment which is so dry and rocky

Bryce looked cool from the rim, but it became truly amazing once we could walk inside the canyon.  We decided to hike a trail called "Queen's Garden" which was less than a mile but a 300 foot descent.  It gave us some really amazing views of the canyon.

There were several places where small doorways had been cut through the canyon.

Many of the structures reminded me of chess pieces.

The hike was a lot of fun, but more challenging that it looked at first.  The view at the bottom was worth the effort for sure.

Pro-tip.  Ask someone with a nice camera to take a picture of your group.  Luke asked a nice German gentleman with an SLR camera to take this one for us.  A nice lady at the Grand Canyon with less photographic skills took a group picture with all of us that had all but our heads cut out of it.

What can happen when you ask a random stranger to take your picture.

The hike back up the the rim was fun but with a couple challenging parts.  It is always a sense of accomplishment when you finish a difficult hike.  We took a group pic at the top to celebrate.

 


Here's a video overview of the entire day:

America First

After this hike, we walked up toward the parking lot and restroom area.  There was a lot of activity going on as it appeared that a couple busloads of foreign tourists had just arrived and many were sitting all around eating packaged meals.  The smell of Chinese food and the sight of people eating sandwiches made us all a little hungry.  There was also an ambulance and a rescue squad in a section of the lot, and they appeared to be pulling out a stretcher and ropes and other gear to possibly help a stranded or injured hiker.  

Apparently, Greg was gawking a bit too much at this scene because he walked into a retaining wall where a foreign lady was sitting and eating a giant sandwich.  Beth tried to warn him by shouting, "Greg!" but it was too late.  Greg reached around the stranger's back and "hugged" her a little to regain his balance and immediately began apologizing profusely.  The lady seemed confused about what had just happened and did not react well to Greg's apologies.  Her facial expression was one of shock, disgust, and anger.  I joked with Greg later that he should have gone all the way and taken a bite out of her sandwich while whispering "America first" in her ear.

Tomorrow we travel back to Las Vegas to put the finishing touches on this amazing experience.