If I were to chose the three top highlights from my recent America mid west trip, Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and its hoodoos would definitely make the mark. In case you're wondering why Bryce Canyon is so special, and what hoodoos are, let me show you this. It's much easier to show than explain beauty. This is an incredible view, right?
Hoodoo are these stacks of rocks that are formed over millions and millions of years ago. About 40 to 55 million years ago this area was full of water and sediments built up over time creating different layers of rocks. After the water dried up, erosion happened. Some layers of rocks were more easily eroded than others. The rocks start off as big slabs like a wall, then cracks formed in between and eventually you end up with a single tall column which becomes hoodoos. Even on a hoodoo, some layers are eroded quicker than others, and every hoodoo is different from its neighbour. Poetry in Stone, that's how the official brochure describes itself. Now you'll probably understand why this is one of my top 3 favourite highlights.
Change of plans
My original plan was to catch the free shuttle bus provided by the park to Bryce Point and hike 3 miles along the canyon rim trail to Inspiration, Sunset and Sunrise Points. Together these make up the Bryce Amphitheatre. Then we'd drive the 20 miles Southern Scenic Drive to see more hoodoos. Sadly it was forecasted to rain just as we were about to set off, so change of plans. We'd do the Southern Scenic Drive first, then drive to the Bryce Amphitheatre points instead of hiking. Didn't want Snowpea to get wet.
Southern Scenic Drive
We drove straight to the end of the 20 mile Southern Scenice Drive first, then turned back and visited each of the view points. It was easier this way as the canyon and all the view points are on the right side of the road. We just had to pull into the layby and didn't have to cross the road, avoiding all the traffic. The end point of the road is Rainbow Point, this is at 9115ft ASL and it felt like I was on the top of the world. What a great view.
Working back down, I stopped at Ponderosa Point, and had descended 200 ft. The view is the same as before but it's not. I mean I'm looking at the same canyon, and the same group of hoodoos, but they look different at every turn due to the rock formations and angles.
Remember I said hoodoos start as big slabs of wall and are gradually eroded into columns? In between, sometimes, the bottom layers are eroded first but not the top layers. When this happens a bridge, or window is formed. This is what happened here at Natural Bridge creating this stunning view. A massive opening in the millions year old rocks perched at nearly 9000ft high above in the mountains. Absolutely incredible.
When we were at Natural Bridge, the high altitude plus the cold weather, plus the fact we'd been driving a good part of the day to get to Bryce Canyon, was all having an affect on my sister. She was feeling the altitude sickness and had to rest inside the vehicle whilst we all hopped on and off to take photos. The Natural Bridge was so impressive, and luckily we managed to persuade her to get out and take a look. We were glad we did, and so was she.
The Southern Scenic Drive runs along the canyon, it's a little bendy and can go up and down. Farview Point is a little further along from Natural Bridge and we had risen from 8626 ft to 8819ft. It's not called Farview Point for no reason. This is one of the last stunning viewpoints along the drive before we enter the Bryce Amphitheatre area.
Bryce Amphitheatre
Bryce Point was supposed to be the starting point of my short hike at Bryce Canyon but sadly things didn't work out due to weather. But that's fine. The elevation is lower here, but still quite high, and I'm a lot closer to the hoodoos, I can almost reach out to them. JJ. Looking at the hoodoos at a nearer viewpoint gives another perspective,and I was able to see more geological features and how the erosion has effected the areas.
My original intention to hike from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point would be 1.5 miles. In a way I'm glad I didn't have to do that in the end as I was getting a little tired, plus the rain had made the path a little muddy. This gave me more time to admire the views, it was absolutely breathtaking and deinitely my favourite spot out of them all. According to the official website, Inspiration Point provides a birds-eye view of the world's largest collection of rock spires called "hoodoos" found within the Bryce Amphitheater. There's literally hundreds of them here,
Next is Sunset Point, and is 0.7m hike from Inspiration Point. The rock colours here are quite varied ranging from yellow to white and a mix in between. Nature's painting at its best. If you look carefully in the third image below, you can see a couple of people right next to the hoodoos. Apart from the easier canyon rim trail I originally planned to do, there are a couple other moderate ones that you can hike and get much closer to the hoodoo. If I have a chance to come back to Bryce Canyon one day with Snowpea, I'm definitely going to do that.
And finally, coming to the end of my visit at Bryce Canyon, Sunrise Point. The viewpoint offered pretty much a 360 degree view of the canyon looking very far out. Despite its name, and I was here at early evening before sunset, the view was nothing short of spectacular. I imagine if I hung around for another hour or so, the ray of sunset glowing down onto the hoodoos would be an amazing scene. I didn't get to see that, but I did manage to catch a partial rainbow shooting out from the hoodoos. Not a bad way to finish my day at Bryce Canyon. Hope you enjoyed your virtual trip with me.
