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Published: August 27th 2006
On our way in to Bryce we stopped at the Red Canyon. This wasn’t a planned stop it was just so beautiful we had to explore and take some pics. The rocks were the most brilliant, intense shade of red - enough to rival Ayres Rock.
Bryce is only about 2 -3 hours from Zion. We arrived about lunch time and drove in. This park also had a shuttle but it didn’t run as frequently as at Zion and so we decided to take our car around. The parks are so big that driving around is necessary we weren’t just being lazy! As with Zion the early inhabitants were the American Indians and the Mormons. The place itself is named after a Mormon settler called Ebenezer Bryce who famously stated that the canyon was ‘a hell of a place to loose a cow!’ From the viewing platforms you can see for miles, some of the clearest air in the US. They have frequent lightening strikes which leads to interesting burnt our trees in the middle of small green forests (yes green trees even exist in the desert). Nick was particularly interested by the twisted structure of the bristlecone pine. While
the views from the viewing platforms were fantastic we didn’t really get a true feel for the place until we did a short walk down into the canyon at sunset - amazing. The tall skinny rock formations are known as hoodoos, one particularly cool one formed an arch. We met a guy called Steve who was doing what looked like some pretty serious photography, tripod and everything. We chatted to him while we watched the moon come up above the canyon. He offered to take us to a good spot to watch the sunrise the next morning, Nick was especially keen to this. After a lovely day with temps in the mid 20s - 30oC after the sun set the temperature dropped. As we drove back that night in the 7 mins it took us to arrive at our trailer the temperature had dropped 7oC from 20oC to 13oC! And it continued to drop over night (the expected low was 2oC and this is summer!) The chilly temperature is due to the altitude - at its highest point the park is at over 9000ft, were we were staying was about 7000ft. At 5.30am the next day was drove in again
Canyon Rim 4
Don't get to close!- well worth the early wake up call and the chilly 4oC temperature! It was neat to see the sun rise and light up the canyons. It was also amusing to see our shadows on the canyon walls!
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Pam
non-member comment
Once again - fab pics
Love the little teapot photo - got a feeling it will be Mel, not Nick! Good to see you haven't changed Mel!