Bryce Canyon National Park

There just aren't any words to describe Bryce Canyon National Park.  It isn't as huge as the Grand Canyon or as popular as Zion, but it surpasses them both in the sheer beauty of its rock formations.  The colors in the park are hypnotic:  reds, pinks, oranges, whites, greys, blues, greens, and many shades of those colors.

Today as a perfect day:  no clouds, high of 70F, very light breeze, no humidity.  We planned one of the more strenuous hikes in the park, which is known as the Peek-a-Boo Loop, but we added on segments of the Navajo Loop and a side leg to Sunrise Point along the rim.  The hike was about 6 miles of constant ups and downs, but it seemed much easier because of the wonderful conditions.

We started early, to avoid the crowds, and we hoped that the more strenuous hike we picked also would discourage most tourists from joining us.  This worked, by and large, and we didn't really run into large numbers of tourists until we were finishing the hike, where they poked down Navajo Loop Trail until they'd had enough.  Bryce was much less crowded than Zion overall, as well.

As often happens with us, we finished the visit with a salad and a beer in the lodge.  The lodge at Bryce was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, as were a number of other national park lodges that were developed in conjunction with the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The lodge is of the old style, all dark wood, and beautiful.

Learn more about the park at this Wikipedia page.

We spent over an hour considering which of our more than 100 photos to include in this blog, but the problem was that nearly all of them are really striking (due to the subjects, not the technique).  So instead of picking for you, we'll direct you to the Flickr album where we've posted all of them.

Enjoy!