Beautiful Bryce Canyon

We headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park today.  The first part of the drive took us over Boulder Mountain a nice change from the stark rock landscape.  It was covered with beautiful pines and aspens.  We dropped down to the town of Boulder through an area called the Devil’s Backbone.  It was unbelievable.  The road was narrow and canyons dropped off both sides with no guard rails.  There were some 16% grades and a sign that said “Take a Deep Breath”.  It was so incredible.  Mike did a great job (as usual) of maneuvering through the area.  We then drove through Escalante and on to Kodachrome Basin State Park where we stopped for a picnic lunch.  The basin canyon was named by the National Geographic Society and certainly deserves it’s name.  There were many large hoodoo’s (a natural column of rock often in fantastic form) and multi-colored cliffs.  We took a wonderful hike through a part of the canyon. 

We drove to Bryce Canyon National Park which is the highest point on what is called the Grand Staircase, Zion comes next and the bottom is the Grand Canyon.  We stayed at the Ruby Inn RV Park.  The Ruby Inn has been at Bryce for over 90 years and is located right outside the entrance.  When Mike and I took our 2002 cross country trip we stayed at the Inn – then it was only 7 degrees outside and we only saw a small section of the park.  After getting set up, we entered the park and drove the 18 miles to Rainbow Point where we stopped to see the imposing view of red, pink and white hoodoos and a good part of Southern Utah in the background.  The Paiutes, who lived in this region when settlers first came to Utah, called the hoodoos the “Legend People” whom their God had turned to stone.  We then drove back toward the entrance making stops at all of the view points along the way.  Special ones were Natural Bridge, Paria View (which looks into Bryce Amphitheater) and Bryce Point.  The photos we took are amazing.  The place was loaded with visitors and most of them were obviously from Europe or Asia.  Later that evening we drove back into the park and visited Sunset Point.  Our plan was to stay until after dark and see the full moon and the stars, however there was some cloud cover and by 10 O’clock when it still wasn’t dark, we headed home.  Bryce is truly a spectacular spot.  I don’t know if we can take any more beauty!