Day Ten – Glimpses of Bryce Canyon

As we climbed the last bit of highway to Bryce Canyon National Park, we began to see sleet and patches of snow on the side of the road. It is a high elevation park ranging from 8,000 to almost 10,000 ft. When we arrived at our campsite, there were patches of snow on the ground, slush on the picnic table, and the temperature was a balmy 36 degrees.

Thankfully our camper has a great little heater that warms up the interior quickly. While eating lunch, we looked over the park maps, and decided to ride the park’s shuttle bus to see if we could see anything but clouds at the various viewpoints. 

During the second round on a shuttle, the clouds began to lift a bit so we got a few glimpses of the pinkish hoo doos, or as the local Paiute Tribe calls them “ooh doos”, peering out from the clouds. 

Another half an hour and the clouds broke up even more revealing the gorgeous pink and beige hues of the main Bryce Canyon amphitheater. We strolled along the walkway at Sunset Point and watched the lighting change on the spires, hoo doos, and fins revealing shadows and contours that we hadn’t seen earlier. While these geologic features were also formed from weathering and erosion (like Goblin Valley and Arches National Park) of sedimentary rock, the sediment in this location was originally deposited on the floor of ancient Lake Claron over 30 million years ago. A lake deposition compared to a seabed deposition is one reason the pinkish hues of the rock formations in Bryce Canyon are so unique. 


Of course, this is another extremely popular national park that is crawling with tourists, including ourselves. We heard so many different languages that at one point Pat wondered what country we were in? You have to work pretty hard to take photos without other people in them... lots of creative photography 😊 In places it looked like there were ants scrambling along trails with their selfie-sticks. Watch out for those wildly swinging sticks!



Regardless how crowded, this is a gorgeous park and it was well worth the visit, even by those of us who normally travel lesser-known parts. 

Comments

  1. LoriMay 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM

    I'm glad you two went to Bryce! It is awesome. Back in 1995, I went with the Institute of Creation Research on a bus tour to Bryce (and other nearby places. We took a hike down into canyon- I had knees then. Same day I did a helicopter ride over Bryce--it was great!

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