Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Beautiful Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is a place we almost skipped but we're glad we didn't. The canyon is about 25 miles long with an 18 mile scenic drive. It is kind of like driving on Skyline Drive (part of the Blue Ridge Parkway) in my home state of Virginia. Instead of looking out over the rolling, green hills of the Shenandoah Valley, this looks out over lots of unusual rock formations.

Sometimes being "old" has advantages. Our Golden Age Passport for National Parks saved us $25!We did as advised and drove the 18 miles to the end of the scenic road. All the vista points are on the East side of the road, so we hit them coming back. It's sort of frustrating to take photos because it's impossible to show the huge size of the canyon and its formations but we had fun trying.
You can see the rest of the viewing area for this stop at the top right of the photo below. We walked over there for more pictures.
How do these top-heavy formations stay up? What mighty force the water, wind, and volcanic action must have had to make this happen.
This plateau rock was unusual.
This is Ed walking down to the Bryce Point vista.
Before us was an intricate fairyland.
Just watching the hikers was tiring for us.
We discussed taking a horse ride but guessed they didn't have 10 minute rides, which probably would have been sufficient for me!
This fellow made me nervous standing out on this rock where there was no guard rail, however, he probably got some good photos. Guess what, another natural bridge, but again, not as big as the one in Virginia.

2 comments:

Beth said...

I've seen this type of landscape on TV, but your photos are much better.

Steven said...

Wow, what great pics in AZ?! Looks like a very interesting place to visit. Enjoy!