03-02 Utah 2003

CABIN HS-5 This would be home sweet home for my stay here in Bryce Canyon, one of the historical structures (HS, get it?) in the park. Very cozy with a combination kitchen/dining room, a single bedroom -- which also served as my living room -- and a bathroom. You wouldn't think it, but everything I brought with me in Ol' Blue (including my Sony Home Theater System, but no TV) packed that little place to the gills. Can I pack or what?

BRYCE CANYON VUAs This is the Visitor Use Assistant (VUA) crew I would work with for the summer. As I've unfortunately forgotten some of the names by now, I'll refrain from naming any of them to spare any hurt feelings. That's my boss, Sheree, front row second from left, though. I have to name her.

AMI GOOGLE-EYE It wasn't all work, work, work around Bryce Canyon, even though it may have felt like it sometimes. This is my buddy, Ami, clowning around with a couple of cut-out eyes in the Shuttle terminal north of the park. Isn't she cute?

WELCOME TO BRYCE CANYON And here we go on the canyon's Rim Walk on a mildly hazy morning. This was my first view of this place and I was awed. I'd always seen pictures of it, but nothing compared to seeing it first-hand. Spectacular would pretty much sum it up in one word, if you had to. I'm not sure right where we are, but I started on the south end of the Rim Walk, so I suspect we must be in the vicinity of Bryce Point.

AN ARRAY OF COLORS One thing makes Bryce Canyon's rock formations -- called "hoodoos" -- stand out is the variety of colors they have, sometimes within the spires themselves, caused by layers of sedimentation. These hoodoos were carved out by eons of erosion by ice and water, most of this caused by the lapping of waves from an ancient inland sea against the shores of this, the Paunsaugunt Plateau. It's an ongoing process, as they change ever so slightly each time it rains or when winter comes along.

SIDE CANYON VIEW A quick stop to peek down a side canyon to the Amphitheater below. What a stunning view! There are few places in the world quite like this one.

LIKE CHINESE TERRA COTTA WARRIORS I zoomed in for a little detail shot of this set of spires, which reminded me of photos of those Chinese terra cotta warrior statues you see in National Geographic. What a truly amazing piece of work this is. Notice the strata of different colors in the spires.

HAVIN' A BALL! Just me in one of my "I am here" shots, enjoying my experience of the park.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST CAIRN Being the good little trail worker that I am, I couldn't help but notice this cairn-looking formation sitting at the edge of this escarpment. How curious that that should come to be there and where does the trail go from here?

AMPHITHEATER VIEW Here's an overall view of one of the main amphitheaters. Technically, Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all, but a series of amphitheaters of rock formations lying below the plateau. This area was originally settled by a Mormon pioneer, one Ebenezer Bryce, whose friends began calling the place "Bryce's Canyon." In 1919, the Utah Joint Memorial passed legislation which would've called the place "The Temple of the Gods National Monument," but when the it became a national park in 1924, the possessive was removed from it's original name and it became Bryce Canyon National Park, instead. Much better!

SLOT CANYON Just one of several slot canyons scattered throughout the park. I don't think this one is accessible, but I could be wrong. It's happened before.

BRISTLECONE PINE These amazing trees -- the one on the right that looks like its dead or dying -- can live in the most inhospitible of places for thousands of years on just a measly strip of bark showing. According to the Bryce Canyon website, Bryce is remarkable in that in its 2,000' elevation difference between rim and bottom, it goes through three distinct climatic zones: spruce/fir forest, Ponderosa Pine forest, and Pinyon Pine/juniper forest. They've got it all, folks.

BOOTH VIEW Well, playtime's over now and it's off to start my season. This just so happens to be my view from one of the fee booths, something I had to look at all day long. Darn. (Actually, this is a rare day in the park, with no line of cars stretching around the bend.) Is that a great sky, or what?

CEDAR MOUNTAIN For groceries, you could go the 40 miles or so off the plateau to Panguitch, or you could go up and over Cedar Mountain to Cedar City, some 80 miles away -- home of the nearest Wal-Mart. The trip was a long one, but as you can see, it was also breathtaking.

ZION OVERLOOK At a gentle turn in the road, where the road skates along the side of the mountain, you come upon the Zion Overlook. It's a truly spectacular view, with Zion National Park lying off near the horizon as the pale zigzag mark in the center.

HEADING BACK Here's this mountain looking at it from the way back.

NAVAJO LOOP TRAIL Now we're heading down into one of the slot canyons on our way to do the Navajo Loop Trail. It's hard to tell from this angle how many switchbacks there are in this downhill run, but there are a lot.

LOOKING BACK UP Now you get the idea. Look at all the rock used to build those retaining walls. I wonder where they quarried it all, as I never saw any evidence of quarrying in my travels here.

SO MANY RETAINING WALLS Just look at all that rockwork! I wonder how long ago all this was built and how long it took them? Great work, whoever it was. That's Sunset Point up above us.

INTO THE CANYON We're now entering what is known as "Wall Street." This is one of the few true slot canyons in the park. These are always exciting

LONE PINE I just can't resist a lone tree along the trail. This guy says it all.

RINGED IN Looking up through a bowl of hoodoos. These are truly fascinating rock formations.

A LITTLE SCALE As I didn't give any scale to the last slot canyon slot -- which was a bit smaller than this one, actually -- I thought I should do so now, as the size of this one was awesome.

DOUGLAS FIRS This is a popular photo op along the trail, and one you can find postcards and posters and such in the Gift Shop. I still had to have mine, though.

SIDE CANYON A little side canyon with its own bridges. Funny how they should form, but that's erosion at work for you. There's a lot of that around here.

MARS PORTAL This is one of my favorite shots of the whole summer. I wish now I'd stopped and taken about a dozen shots of it, but I guess it'll still be there next time I'm through.

THOR'S HAMMER We're coming back up onto the plateau now and passing Thor's Hammer, the tallest thing out there. Off to its left is the multiple-spired formation The Temple of Osiris, and off on the horizon to its right is Powell Point.

TURKISH FORMATION I don't know why, but this always reminds me of something made in Turkey. It's a very strange-looking thing, just sitting there on the edge all by itself.

TRAIL'S END And now a shot looking back down the trail as these two jokers are running up it. I'm huffing and puffing to beat the band and these guys just flew by me, speaking Italian. Foreigners!

APPROACHING STORM Here's something we had little of during my summer here, but when we did have them, they were doozies. This particular storm was responsible for completely burying the neighboring Red Canyon in six feet of its own mud, blocking the road for a good long time. It sure looks like it means business, doesn't it?

NOT BOTHERED IN THE LEAST Well, the horses here don't seem to mind all the approaching weather too much. I wonder what they did when this sucker finally hit?

WHAM!!! And here we are, riding out the storm in the Shuttle terminal at the head of the road that leads into the park. Just before it hit, there were a few sprinkles, then WHAM, we were in it. It only lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, but let us know it was here in that time.

GETTING A FREE WASH Well, Ol' Blue needed a bath, anyway, so there he sits taking a good one. No, that's not water on my camera lens, but the view from the office inside the terminal.

FAIRYLAND LOOP Now we're off on one of the most ambitious hikes in the park -- the Fairyland Loop. This little 8-mile hike will feel more than twice that before I'm done (or, rather, done in), what with its overall 900' elevation difference. It took me six hours to hike it and two days to recover from it. I still get calf cramps just thinking about it. This is near the start at Fairyland Point.

FAIRYLAND VIEW A nice shot of the canyon as we begin to head downhill. I'm not sure, but that may be Sunrise Point out there on the right.

WALL FORMATION I'm sure there are names given to formations like this one that are so predominant, but they're not on my map. Yet another oddity in a place chock-full of oddities.

BUTTERCUP? I failed to find out just what this flower was, but it looks like a buttercup to me. I struck me as strange to see such a beautiful and delicate thing popping up from this landscape from Mars.

VIEWPOINT? Well, from what I can tell, it's not, but it sure looks like one, doesn't it? On my topo map, there is a jutting piece of land before Sunrise Point, so this may be it. I hate not knowing stuff! It's still part of the Rim Walk, though.

HOODOO WALL Boy, you could run out of titles real quick on these hikes, but I'll do the best I can.

HOODOO FORTRESS Ha, how's that? That's really kind of what this looks like, though. Very impressive, to say the least.

HOODOO SENTINALS It struck me funny that these three guys should just be standing around here, as if on watch -- or perhaps resting! I know how you feel, guys.

"CLICK, CLICK, CLICK . . . " As I was walking through the woods at the bottom of the hike, I kept hearing this soft clicking sound everywhere, sounding like a slowly tilted rainstick. My curiousity aroused, I stopped and listened very carefully, following the sound to its source. And what should I find making it than this tiny little cicada, less than an inch long overall. How funny. The ones we have in Texas are almost twice this guy's size and make a grating screeching sound that can drive you bonkers, especially when there are dozens of them going off at the same time. I hated using the flash to take this shot, but he had a shadow going right across his head.

RAINSTICK For those out there who are unfamiliar with rainsticks, here's a photo of mine. I've had several of these things over the years, as I find the sound they make very soothing. (One I bought for someone years ago for Christmas actually saved my sanity during an all-day marathon shopping spree. I kept it and bought them something else.) They're originally from Chile, and were thought to be used in ceremonies to call rainstorms during times of drought, and are made from cactus stems. The spines are removed and inserted into the stem, then the stem is sealed on one end and a small quantity of beads or seeds is added. The other end is then sealed and the rainstick is left to dry. When dry, the beads or seeds strike the spines, causing the tinkling sound. Try one out sometime.

MOONSCAPE So now we've gone from the rich terra cotta red rocks to this almost pure white area the color and texture of divinity (the candy). In fact, this rock kind of looks like a big chunk of divinity. God, it's been forever since I've had any of that delicious Christmastime stuff. I wonder if any of my family still remembers how to make it?