Friday, June 27, 2014

Days 49-50 – Hoodoos: Funny Name, Serious Splendor!

So I’ve again had spotty internet, but the last two days we have spent traveling to and exploring Bryce Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/brca/index.htm). Bryce is known for its hoodoos, which are pillars of rock eroded into odd-shapes. I haven’t had a chance to load pictures from our trip yet (they’re all on Marcel’s camera, and he’s off at a talk about astronomy right now- Bryce Canyon is an awesome spot for stargazing and their Astronomy festival is going on now), but here is an image I pulled off of Google Images so you can get an idea of what hoodoos and Bryce Canyon look like:



One of the best things about being at Bryce Canyon is that it’s significantly cooler than the other places we have been so far on this trip. It was somewhere around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit most of today, and was even slightly overcast part of the day. This makes for much more comfortable hiking weather than blazing sun and 100 degrees, which has been what much of this trip has been so far. I used to live in Texas so I have experience with that kind of weather, but it’s a lot easier to hike with a baby when the weather is not so harsh. Today we hiked about 5 miles, and most of the time it was very pleasant. We did part of the rim trail, and we did the Mossy Cave trail, which leads to a waterfall! I love waterfalls!

The best part of the day was probably the rim trail. Bryce Canyon National Park has several viewpoints set up that you can drive to, and these are all pretty crowded during the day with lots of people snapping photos. Similar to the Grand Canyon, however, there are trails along the rim between the major viewpoints. The portion of the rim trail we hiked was pretty quiet. There were not a lot of people and the views were spectacular! I had never heard of a hoodoo before this trip, but looking down into the canyon at all of these funny shaped rocks and the pine trees surrounding them was quite extraordinary. The light dancing off the odd shapes really gives a lot of depth to the canyon when you’re viewing it from above. I’ve felt many times on this trip that you really have to see the natural beauty of these places in person to appreciate it, and today was no exception. I had seen pictures of the hoodoos on the park website, but that was no comparison to seeing them in person. Tomorrow we are going to hike some more trails and see more of Bryce Canyon. I’m not sure whether I’ll have working internet or not, but as soon as I do I’ll update and try to get a few pictures of our trip uploaded.

By the way, I am definitely still getting some good coffee even though I’m traveling around and camping. Mr. Coffeebeans brought a hand grinder with us and he has been grinding coffee beans fresh every morning, so I still get my coffee reflection time and my caffeine fix.

Ok, that’s all for now, I’ll have more updates as soon as working internet makes it possible!

Xoxo,

Diana

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