Bryce Canyon National Park - October 19-21, 2012

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  The Hoodoos are amazing and the color is incredible - from the reds and whites to incredible pastel corals.  We took hundreds of pictures so it was really tough to narrow it down to just a few for this blog post.  We saw sunsets and sunrises, as well as mid-day sun and the last day clouds with a storm moving in.

 These three photos are all from the Mossy Cave trail on the eastern edge of the park.

A view from Bryce Point looking out into the Amphitheater at sunset.
 

A view to the west from Bryce Point after sunset.  These rocks were mostly white with a little of the coral color.

Quite a root system that was recovered from a tree that lost it's battle on the edge of the canyon!

 A view from Sunrise Point at sunrise.  Absolutely incredible colors!

Another view at Sunrise Point at sunrise.

Hiking down the Queen's Garden Trail at sunrise.

 A view of Queen's Garden from the trail at sunrise.

There are several places where tunnels had to be dug in the rock for the trail.  This section was still in the shadows after sunrise.

The morning sun is just starting to bring this section alive.

 A view from the trail looking up at the rim at sunrise.

We named this rock formation ET!

A view from the bottom of the Navajo Trail looking up at Sunset Point on the ridge.

 A view from Fairyland Point - the formation in the upper center looks like a giant castle.

A mid-day photo of the Amphitheater from Bryce Point looking across at Sunset Point (center on the ridge) and Sunrise Point (right side on the ridge).

More views of the Hoodoos!

An example of trees on the edge.  The elements have exposed their roots and continually erode the edge, but the trees live on!

Above and to the right are views from Rainbow Point - the highest part of the Park at over 9,000 feet elevation.

Coming down from Rainbow Point we stopped to let four deer cross the road.

This is Natural Bridge.

Above and to the left is Thor's Hammer, a famous landmark as seen from Sunset Point.

Views from Fairyland Point.  This canyon is smaller than the Amphitheater, but has many varied rock formations.

 

 

Red Canyon - West of Bryce on Highway 12 you encounter Red Canyon which has beautiful red vistas.  In two places the highway runs through rock tunnels like the one shown below.

 



Here are a couple examples of the red rock in Red Canyon.

 

Costa Canyon - After exiting Red Canyon we took a dirt road to the north to explore Costa Canyon on an ATV.

 

Views of Costa Canyon from the ATV.  It is a beautiful canyon and we climbed in elevation into a lot of pine trees.

 

 

Grosvenor Arch and Kodachrome State Park - October 19, 2012

Our visit to these two landmarks was due to a bit of serendipity.  Our plan was to spend the previous night in a hotel in Escalante and see some sights there, but it turned out that the hotel we reserved was in Cannonville, 38 miles past Escalante.  We didn't want to spend time driving back so we discovered the Grosvenor Arch and Kodachrome State Park and had a great day!

Grosvenor Arch - The Arch is located about 11 miles past Kodachrome State Park and it is well worth the drive to see it.  The pictures below do not fully give one a feeling of the majesty of this arch.  It is golden in color, with white, grey and pink mixed in.  It is actually a double arch with a small arch on the left.

A view from the parking lot.

 Various views of the arch.

Kodachrome State Park - the Park received it's name because it was part of an expedition done by National Geographic Magazine that was sponsored by the Kodak company.  We had never heard of it before our visit.  It has a lot of camping facilities and would be a great place to stay.

To the right is Chimney Rock.  Behind it is the rock formation shown above.

On the trail to Shakespeare Arch.

A couple of views of Shakespeare Arch.

 
 Various views in the Park.

An example of the contrast in colors.

This was one of Diane's favorite rock formations to photograph - we have about 25 photos of this pillar from different angles!  To us this looked like two mythological characters standing with their arms around each other - the man is on the left and his wife on the right.

This one on the right looked like a lizard that had climbed up on the backbone of a red rock!

This one appeared to be a ghoulish Halloween character!

Various rock formations in the campground area.

 

 A view between the Park and Cannonville.

 

A patriotic display of the flag in Cannonville.

Scenery from Cannonville.