Bryce Canyon National Park

The culmination of our two week tour of northern Arizona and southern Utah was our day trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. Once again, this proved to be a place of indescribable geological formations, a vast rolling landscape of red, pink, yellow and white hoodoos. The surroundings are otherworldly, at times ghostly and ethereal, and walking among these ancient towers was like being transported to some other planet. We hiked through several trails in the park, and at every turn in the road was a new shape, a new color, and a new impression, with our eyes constantly drawn skyward to the spires and pinnacles at the top of each hoodoo. At the bottom of the canyons, as I wound my way around the rock formations I felt tiny and insignificant, almost like an intruder into some secret world. Along the ridges, gazing down into the canyons below, the hoodoos were transformed into rippling waves of an ocean of rock, with arrangements that looked like gigantic aquarium ornaments.

“Poetry in Stone” is how the National Park brochure describes Bryce Canyon, and I can’t think of a more apt definition. Millions of years of weathering and erosion shape the rocks, with flowing water playing only a minor role in this story. As snow and ice melt, water seeps into fractures. As it re-freezes, it expands and cracks the rock around it. The combination of gravity and meltwater causes soil creep, moving the stone fragments downhill. There, is of course, always a geological explanation for all planetary structures and phenomenon, and hoodoos are curious and captivating, begging the questions of “how?”, “why?” and “when”?  But the immediate experience of seeing the crystalline blue sky, rocks ablaze with sunlight, shifting shadows wrapping in and out of the hoodoos as the day progresses, and the forces of nature creating this dynamic, mesmerizing place cannot be confined to merely geological terms. Hopefully our pictures help fill in some of the blanks as well.

Zion National Park

After leaving Page, Arizona, we drove 100-miles northwest to Mt. Carmel, Utah, positioning ourselves for visits to two of the most incredible National Parks in the country: Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park. We pulled into the Hi-Road RV Park on April 25^th, just outside the east entrance to Zion NP, and almost immediately after unhitching the truck from the 5^th wheel and getting set up, it started to snow. I guess winter wasn’t quite ready to let go here! The elevation at the RV Park is a few hundred feet higher than the driving areas of Zion, so after watching the snow come down (and stick) for a couple of hours, we decided to drive into the park to get a feel for how we wanted to approach our visit over the next few days. Sure enough, once we came down the hill a bit, the snow turned to rain, and we were more optimistic, especially with a forecast of drier days the rest of the week. We picked up park brochures, hiking trail maps, and drove through the scenic byway, excited by what we were seeing, and looking forward to a more in-depth exploration the following days.

Like all of the vast canyon lands across the Colorado Plateau, Zion’s impressive landscape is one carved from water. Waterfalls, rivers, and flash floods propelling log jams and boulders through the canyons, over vast periods of time, all play a part in creating one of Nature’s most breathtaking displays of geology anywhere. Everywhere we looked we were awestruck, from the soaring steel-gray rock mountains, to the red sandstone cliffs, green canyons, and blue skies; the waterfalls coming down the mountain sides feeding the Virgin River, spreading over diverse landscapes encompassing everything from the lowland deserts to the forested highlands. A large variety of plants, animals, spiders, and reptiles call Zion home, and we were lucky enough to see a small sampling of these native (and sometimes not so native) inhabitants.

The hiking opportunities in Zion seem endless, ranging from quick jaunts of under ¼ mile to take in a vista point, to half-day, full-day, and even several day backpacking ventures. Our time was limited, and wanting to cover as much ground as possible, plus include a variety of experiences, we went on a number of the more popular hikes in the park:

The Canyon Overlook Trail that climbs above the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel that culminates in stunning views of lower Zion Canyon, including the famous switchbacks (on the road), hoodoos, wildflowers, and many  significant geological formations.

Riverside Walk, one of the most popular trails in Zion NP along the Virgin River which provides access to “the narrows” (a slot canyon in the north end of the canyon). During the drier months of the year, hikers can continue hiking in the river, up “the narrows” for as far as they want. During the wet season, the chance of flash floods prohibit this. 

Emerald Pools, a lushly vegetated trail that meanders by a stream leading to tiered waterfalls.

Weeping Rock, a short but steep hike that takes you to the moss and fern-covered eave of an overhanging cliff, and is accessible from one of the stops along the shuttle route.

Pa’rus Trail, named after the Paiute word for “bubbling water”, a paved trail along the Virgin River with much wildlife, flowers, and birds.

We also took a lengthy walk along the shuttle route, which allowed us to explore parts of the park we otherwise would have missed, such a small “unadvertised” waterfall tucked away off the road, and to get off and on the shuttle if we felt like it (which we did, once it started to rain!).

As is always the case, pictures can only capture a small portion of the awe and beauty one experiences by actually being somewhere such as this, but here is our attempt to do just that.