Hoodoos

I had a very restless night last night, or perhaps I should say sleepless.  I know you’ll find this odd, but the desert is really hot.  I expected cooler temps in the night and well, I was mistaken.  Mixed with gale-force winds that violently shook my tent, I did not sleep much at all.  The entertaining part of the story was watching me pack up the tent in the morning while the winds were still blowing. 

I had not tied my tent down because well, there was not even a breeze when I set it up.  (This is a mistake on my part that will not happen again!)  When I aroused this morning, everything that was in the tent with me: clothes, lantern, water bottle, etc. was all in a pile next to me due to the great winds that had rocked my tent.  I made one trip out of the tent into the car only feet away, then I came back for the second load.  When I had sufficiently gathered my things, I put my feet outside the tent onto solid ground and as I stood up, so did the tent so that I was standing straight up, feet outside, but the rest of my body inside the tent.  Thankfully, I believe most people were still avoiding the winds inside their own tents.  I got it all put away, grumpy and frustrated from lack of sleep, I was getting ready to leave when I stopped to look around and reminded myself of where I was.  I was sleeping in a national park, surrounded by tall red peaks, just beginning to glow with morning sunlight.  After putting things into perspective, I was able to begin another glorious day.

 

My campsite

My drive east today was through some more beautiful countryside: rocky peaks dotted with greenery (how the trees grow there, I’ll never pretend to understand!) and open pastureland that seemed to go on for eternity.  There was even a tunnel, completed in 1930 that was over a mile long going through some of these rocky mountains.  Quite the feat of engineering!

From inside the tunnel

Do you see why it is called "checkerboard"?

I arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park in time to pick a great campsite in the shade, on top of a hill.  After setting up, and tying up my tent, I went in search of the visitor center to ask guidance from a ranger about what I should do for the day.  He said that my campsite was in perfect proximity to some of the parks most scenic walks.  Perfect!  Being at 8,000 feet of elevation, the air here was much cooler.  While 85 is still warm, it was much more bearable than the three-digit-temps in Zion yesterday.

 

Continuing through landscape similar to my campsite: dusty ground and tall pine trees, I wandered towards the signs for the trailheads.  As I got closer, I began to notice that up ahead the trees seemed to suddenly stop, giving way to open sky.

A few years ago, my dad and I visited the Grand Canyon (when we were in Arizona watching Auburn win the National Championship).  It was similar to my experience today.  We had parked the car, and felt sort of dumb as we began looking around, wondering, “So, where is it?”  While the Grand Canyon is of course massive, there was no real way to know that you were upon it until you were there.  It would have been easy to wander along a path 200 yards away and never even know it was there.

Today was similar.  As I came upon the end of the trees, I was blown away my the grandeur ahead of me.  The canyon stretched on as far as I could see, with tall rocky spires, similar to those in the Badlands, only these were orangey-red instead of white.  The vast openness of the canyon was a stark contrast to the forest that ran along its edge.

For my first hike, I left sunrise point and headed down into the canyon, yes, down into it.  Being amongst the tall columns of rock made me once again feel dwarfed.  I felt sort of like a child in a maze, peaking around every corner to see what was next.  While each spire or hoodoo, was unique, I was thankful for a clearly marked trail for I could have easily gotten turned around amongst the rocks, standing like sentries guarding the beautiful landscape.

So, just what is a hoodoo?  Well, they are the tall spires formed by years of rain, snow, wind and erosion.  Thin walls of rocks, called fins are often cracked by ice and snow to form windows in the wall.  Rain further dissolves these holes and creates the hoodoos.

I came into the “Queen’s Garden” so named because one of the hoodoos looks like a statue of Queen Victoria.  Like looking at the clouds and seeing shapes, I’m sure everyone could determine their own creations out of these rocks, but I could actually see the resemblance to the Queen!

 

Use your imagination!  Do you see Queen Victoria?

The next part of the hike, while, it too was breath-taking and contained some beautiful views, well… It is a truth universally acknowledged, that if you hike down, you must also hike up.  Hiking up from the bottom of the canyon to reach the rim was quite the challenge, but it is those challenges that lead us to beautiful views!

I walked along the rim for a while, stopped at the general store for a smoothie and feeling a bit revived with the rest of the afternoon ahead of me, I decided I might as well try the other hike that the ranger suggested.  As I once again began hiking down into the canyon, dread loomed over me realizing that I would be hiking back up it again later.  The hike down to the Tower Bridge was lovely and practically empty, but I was so tired and the views were not quite as spectacular as my previous hike, so I struggled (remember my sleepless night, too).  But, if I had it all to do again, I’d do the same thing!  No sense wasting time while in a National Park!

I paid $2 for a shower at the general store, and at that point, I think I would have paid $20 for the skin on my lower legs was a similar color to the rocks I had hiked amongst, then I prepared for an early night to bed.  I was just about to tuck myself into the tent when I realized the sun was about to set and there was a point called “Sunset Point.”  I just couldn’t help myself, so I drove to Sunset Point and joined the crowds there.  This point actually faced east, but you could see the canyon light up with colors from the sun’s glow across the mountains as it set.  It was a lovely way to end my day amongst the Hoodoos.

Miles traveled: 96

Hours in the car: 2.5

Gallons of gas purchased: 3.9
States: Utah