Bryce Canyon National Park

Driving south from Salt Lake City, I passed tall, snow-covered mountains shortened by clouds and fog.

I stayed overnight at a rest stop in the small town of Panguitch, Utah near Bryce Canyon National Park. After having a bit of breakfast I noticed the morning sun hitting the top part of this old building and I liked the glow of it.

Before I even got into the park I saw these two sights and I knew I was in for a treat.

Once entering the park, it just got better and better. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I loved that this tall, skinny tree is growing out of this tall, skinny spire!

So, all those photos were taken just from the rim of the canyon. Then I started hiking down into it!

Many of the beautiful canyons in this area of the country were created by water erosion. I thought Bryce Canyon was created the same way and to a degree it was. But in this canyon in particular, ice and gravity play much greater roles. A simplified explanation is that when water from rain or even monsoons falls and seeps into cracks it freezes at night and expands causing the cracks to widen and deepen. Gravity eventually pulls the separated rock apart creating the spires and fins you see in these pictures and they’re called hoodoos!

See Queen Victoria immortalized in a hoodoo?!

Lots of these cute little chipmunks in the canyon…. very difficult to capture with a camera!

The trail into the canyon has a gradual entrance and steep exit or vice versa, depending which way you go. I, perhaps unwisely, chose the above mentioned method. Whew, that exit was steep! I tried to capture it in pictures here but really haven’t. It was STEEP!