FUN-photos: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Zion & Bryce, Utah
August 25, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-photos: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Zion & Bryce, Utah
On making our way to Idaho for a week of rafting on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River we spent a good part of a day exploring both the North and South entrances of Zion National Park. Then we headed to Bryce where we spent the night and the following morning drove the scenic 18-mile drive, stopping at all 14 of the viewpoints.
We then continued on to Twin Falls, Idaho to find my mothers family farms and got to see Shoshone Falls. The last stop before arriving in Stanley was the Craters of the Moon National Park, which was a clear disappointment! It’s basically a bunch of lava all over the place. It was a whole lot more interesting seeing it in Iceland last year.
FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Utah – Bryce Canyon
August 19, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Utah – Bryce Canyon
- We arrived in the late afternoon and had time to take in two of the viewpoints close to town, Bryce and Inspiration Points. The spectacular panoramic view which goes on for miles, is unlike anything I have ever seen! It appears as if they’ve carved statutes into the mountain like Petra in Jordan. Other times it looked as if some behemoth took dripping wet sand to make massive sand castles. And more of those incredible colors of varying shades of pink, white, gray, sand, and terra cotta too!
- The following morning we drove the 18-mile scenic drive down to the end at Rainbow Point which took 30 minutes. On the way back our strategic plan was to stop at all of the 14 viewpoints. The eroded cliffs are sculpted by frost that expands to create holes (windows), and then rain, that turns the limestone pillars into bulbous spires called hoodoos. At Piracy Point the sound of the wind whipping up at the edge of the canyon created rustling through the trees that was amazingly loud and like nothing I had ever experienced.
Natural Bridge
- At Sunrise Point we decided to take on the daunting task of maneuvering down the very steep switchback walk so we could experience the dramatic hoodoos from a completely different perspective. Depending on the time of day and cloud coverage, the colors change with the shifting shadows.
Parks Recap – Zion felt a bit like Yosemite (actually almost on the same latitude) but smaller in scale and Bryce looked more like the Grand Canyon in color. Zion has a much bigger town and thus a lot more people; whereas Bryce was smaller and less crowded. That being said there are fewer options. The best hotel in Bryce is the Best Western Plus and we had dinner at Fosters Family Restaurant (which was great) and only a short drive from out hotel.
Hoodoos
FUN-fact – The Grand Staircase runs from the Grand Canyon to Bryce and is the world’s most complete sequence of sedimentary rocks – rocks formed over vast time spans from sediments built up in lakes, inland seas, swamps, deserts, and forests.
More FF – Elsewhere on Earth the geological sequences have been interrupted by uplift of mountain ranges or carving and scouring action by glaciers.
