Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Bryce NP

After a slightly disappointing hiking experience in Zion NP, we moved to Bryce NP, another geological phenomenon located in Utah. In my opinion, the rocks forming Bryce Canyon are much more spectacular than the ones in Zion. Therefore, I was surprised to see less tourists there than in the other park. Moreover, most of them were only driving between one viewpoint and the other. That means that most hiking trails are not overcrowded and as soon as you will start hiking under the rim, you will have the park just for yourself.

To get a decent length one-day hiking trail we had to combine several trails. If I remember correctly we started at Bryce Point with the Peekaboo Trail, then we switched to the Navajo and Queen's Garden Trails until we reached Sunset Point. From there we took the Rim Trail back to Sunrise and Bryce Points. It was a very nice hike that allowed us to admire the geological formations of Bryce both from the birds and ants :-) perspective.

Jochen at Bryce Point:


One of many spectacular hoodoos, also at Bryce Point:


On the Peekaboo Trail:


Our perspective was changing gradually as we were moving along the Peekaboo Trail. First we were looking down at the hoodoos:


And then we started to look up at them:


Again looking down at the hoodoos from the Rim trail:


I could not resist not to "steal" this photo from Jochen. It was also taken in Bryce NP but not in November as other pictures, but in January 2007, when he went back there with his family. Puzzling, isn't it?


As Francis Bacon said: Man, being the servant and interpreter of nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.