Bryce Canyon Park Rainbow Point

The HooDoos change with changing light. After breakfast the second day we got into the car and drove to Rainbow Point, about 20 miles from the Visitors Entrance. The shuttle does not go this far down on a frequent basis so we drove. Regular shuttle service is available every 7 minutes in the Bryce Amphitheater but to the ends of the park the shuttles are by reservation only.
Since it was still early morning, the morning lighting we were seeing on the HooDoos was significantly from the direct overhead afternoon light of yesterday. There is more detail and contrast in the rockscape. To really study the park you need to spend several days here. Alas, our travels are beckoning us beyond so this afternoon we'll make the trek to Death Valley.

Morning light on white HooDoos

The shadows of morning light are longer and the detail in the rocks is more apparent.

I like how sharp and clear the HooDoos stand out above in the morning light.

The calendar says it's July but the 9,000 foot altitude combined with the first light of day make the air a little chilly. We'll soon warm up though in Death Valley.

Wildflowers were surprisingly abundant, but you had to look for them growing out of the rocks. I wish I could identify them. I did photograph every different looking wildflower I could find.

Natural Bridge, Bryce Canyon

We enjoyed our brief visit to Bryce. Our next stop is in Death Valley, California.

Bryce Canyon

As is typical of the US Government, young people get screwed again at the National Parks. If you're 25 years old and struggling to raise a family, the National Park Service says it will cost you $25 to enter each National Park. If you can afford to drive around in a $100,000 RV or live a life of leisure collecting pension checks (like we do) the government says you can buy a pass for $10 that is good for life and will let you in any National Park free. What's the logic of this system? I say let the young people in free and soak the old geezers $25 per park. I try not to be political but this defies reason. That said, we bought our $10 for life old geezers pass.

US Government issued National Parks Old Geezer pass

 Whether driving into the park in a private vehicle or hopping on the Park Service shuttle in front of the hotel, everyone must either have an entry  ticket or pass. We flashed our passes at the driver and took a seat on the comfortable air conditioned bus.

After passing through the Bryce Canyon entry gate the road holds no clue about what's ahead. Tall trees and an occasional meadow are on both sides of the road.  The park is at an altitude of 8,000 to 9,000 feet so the July summer air is not very hot but it's still in the eighties. The sun is still very bright and strong, sunburn is easy to get at these altitudes. We wore hats, a rarity for me. The first stop is the Visitors Center but we stay on the bus and continue to Bryce Point. Bryce Point is a spectacular view into the Bryce amphitheater. Erosion has carved colorful Claron limestones into thousands of spires, fins, arches and mazes. Collectively these are known as HooDoos. HooDoos are located throughout the canyon. We see red, white and purple HooDoos. The reds are in various shades from deep red to orange. Libbie said it looks like a sand castle you would build on the beach.

Bryce Amphitheater from Bryce Point

There are various overlooks into the amphitheater on the 18 mile road that winds around the horseshoe shaped canyon. Our next stop after Bryce Point was Inspiration Point. Once again we were rewarded with a spectacular overlook into a multi color display of HooDoos.

Libbie enjoys Inspiration Point

Our next stop is Sunset Point. The plan is to walk down a trail to the bottom of Bryce Canyon at Sunset Point then take another trail to the rim where we should come out at Sunrise Point. I was excited about the trail. Libbie, not so excited. Thank goodness Christa told us she started a journey to the bottom here at sunset Point with her Mother and came back up at Sunrise.

The trail winds down the canyon wall in a series of switchbacks

Photographing the Bryce Amphitheater

Looking down at HooDoos thousands of feet tall

From above the HooDoos don't like very big but once you descend into the canyon you get an appreciation for how tall they really are.

The giant Redwood at the canyon bottom looks like a miniature

A series of switchbacks winds down the canyon walls below the HooDoos.

Switchbacks

Below the rim looking up. Still going downhill

Up close with a HooDoo

Wall Street

Red glow from sunlight on the red sandstone

When we were on the rim looking down, we could see little tiny trees down at the bottom. These "little" trees are giant redwoods. Their size becomes more apparent as we reach the canyon floor and look up at the Redwoods. Wow, tall trees!!! It puts the whole canyon in perspective for me.

Redwoods now appear taller as we descend

Log and dry stream bed at the bottom

The canyon bottom is a relatively short distance down from the rim. This can easily be reached in under an hour. The real trick now is to climb back up to the rim. My Grand Canyon hiking experiences tell me that the climb out is not nearly as easy as the climb down.

Trail marker and tunnel in HooDoo

A few trails intersect here. We want the trail back up to the rim. We had some trouble interpreting the sign here although we also were carrying a park supplied trail map. We helped some French tourists find their way who were also having trouble interpreting the signs compounded by the fact English was a second language for them.

Libbie looks up at the lone HooDoo. The rim is higher than this HooDoo, meaning we have ways to climb yet

The trail goes through the HooDoos in a few spots

It looks like sand but it's colored wind worn  rocks.

A lone HooDoo stands guard over the trail

Multi Colors revealed by erosion on the HooDoos

View between HooDoos near rim

After our exhausting day hiking in Bryce, the National Park Service shuttle bus dropped us off at the roadside curb in front of the hotel. As we walked up the hotel driveway to our building, Libbie spotted a pair of Bluebirds in the field next to the Driveway. Only Libbie could do this.

Bluebird on corrugated pipe

Bluebird in flight

Monument Valley

Libbie was up early for the sunrise over the valley and captured the above image. Beautiful!
 I think she was bored out there in the sunrise. This is sunrise camera play (or self portrait) by Libbie.

Sunrise Camera Play

 A nice Gouldings breakfast and we're ready to start the day.

Breakfast

The entrance to the Monument Valley park is a few miles South of Gouldings Lodge. There is now a paved parking lot and visitors center at the park entrance, something that was not here when we last visited 24 years ago. Park admission is a very reasonable $5 per person. The park is owned by the Navajo Nation, therefore US National Park passes are not accepted here.

The first stop was the visitors center for a nice overview of the valley. The visitors center is nicely situated on top of a bluff affording a wide open expanse of the valley below. There was slight warm wind blowing across the valley. I have two poses of Libbie, one when the wind stopped and one when it picked up again. Guess which picture I used?

 A Wind Blown Libbie

There are some choices to be made for the 17 mile path through the valley. There are escorted jeep tours, group tours on open air buses and the drive through yourself tour. The road is not paved, is quite rough in spots and very sandy on some of the uphills. I decided the Toyota was up for it, so we drove the 17 mile loop.

The unpaved 17 mile "path" through the monuments

One of the things that became apparent on this trip was the number of European tourists visiting the US parks. The Eurpoean country we encountered the most was France. The delightful European woman afforded another opportunity for a great picture, a study of contrasts between jagged rocks and smooth curves.

An Interesting Study of Contrasts

We met a German couple who were using the same camera model as mine, a Canon 7d. We took pictures of each other after exchanging cameras. They were a nice friendly couple who had come from where we were going, to Bryce Canyon and Death Valley.

Tom & Libbie at the Monument Valley Visitors Center

The desert floor is interesting among the sandstone monoliths. Despite the dry, dusty, sandy environment there is green plant life and even a few wildflowers scattered about. Monument Valley rainfall totals around 1/4 inch per month for an annual total of about 4 inches. These are plants that have adapted well to this dry environment.

Sand and vegetation on the desert floor

Libbie photographing the barren landscape

Windy, hilly, dusty and well rutted unpaved road through the monuments

ditto to the caption above

 

As mentioned in an earlier comment, European tourists were everywhere. I enjoyed this group of young people and the type of pose they were attempting.

European tourists

The Navajo have supported themselves for years making and selling crafts. Throughout the park they set their jewelry, weavings and tapestry on tables and sell the crafts to the tourists. We bought a turquoise and silver necklace from this Navajo lady. I had to wait for her to turn away from the table since most of them expect to be paid a fee to be photographed.

Navajo Jewelry vendor

Roadside Navajo jewelry vendor

Libbie was the passenger as I drove our car through the twisty winding desert. Opportunities for photography are everywhere. Libbie got creative with some mirror shots on our drive.

Despite the road we are on being quite rough and rugged, there are apparently even more challenging pathways that require 4 wheel drive.

A photo opportunity

The road through the desert floor is amazing. Large boulders that seem to be impossibly stacked on smaller rocks, rock outcroppings, wind eroded sandstone and interesting vegetation are a sensory delight.

I found some interesting bark on an old mesquite tree. i know most folks are here to view the sandstone monoliths but I like the smaller details of our journey.

Thank you Libbie for this picture

Mesquite tree bark

As we made our way back to the Visitors Center we encountered a Navajo trail ride. The ride was part of a Navajo health initiative for diabetes screening. Apparently diabetes is a major health issue among the tribe.

Navajo trail ride for diabetes

Once back at the Visitors Center, we stopped along the railing overlook to share a sandwich for lunch. We found a nice lady from Paris, France to take our picture. We tried having a conversation with her but she said she didn't know much English, however her English was better than our French.

Lunch along the railing. A nice scenic if not sunny spot.

The Road to Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is 254 miles from Monument Valley but none of it is on an Interstate. The majority of the travel to Bryce is on the Navajo reservation. From the Monument Valley Visitors center I tried entering the town of Bryce Canyon City into my GPS but it wasn't there. I pulled out our hotel reservation for the Bryce Canyon Grand and found the zip code and tried entering that. The GPS once again balked. We called the number on the reservation (yes you can get a cell phone signal on the reservation) and spoke with the hotel. Bryce Canyon City is a new City with a new zip code and so it wouldn't be in our GPS the desk responded. They gave us a few names of alternate towns to set as our destination so that the GPS could get us close by to them. Once this was all settled, we were on our way.

After traveling through Arizona and entering Utah we saw very pretty rain showers up ahead as can be seen in the photo. The rain turned out to be a photo op only because a few miles ahead the road turned to the right out of the path of the distant rain. I was hoping for a good washing since by now the car was quite dusty with Monument Valley dusty red sand.

Rain Showers make a picturesque view ahead

After a 5 hour afternoon's drive we eventually started seeing HooDoos, a sign that we were getting close to Bryce.

HooDoos alongside the road

We entered Bryce Canyon City and were delighted with our recently built hotel. AAA rates this facility as 3 stars. It's much nicer than I would have expected for a hotel at the entrance to a National Park.  The Bryce Canyon National Park shuttle picks up directly in front of the hotel which is very convenient. The room was very spacious and the bathroom surprisingly had two sinks on two separate vanities across from each other.

Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel at the entrance to the park

Lobby of the Bryce Canyon Grand. Behind the fireplace is a large dining room where a buffet breakfast is served in the morning.  This is a very nice hotel, we highly recommend it.

We could tell we're not on the Navajo reservation anymore. There is a liquor store across the street and our hotel was able to supply us with a corkscrew for our bottle of wine. Cheers!