Driving in the rural west can be a learning experience. One thing you can learn is the meaning of the sign “Open Range”. As you see here, it means look out for cattle.
We found this young critter in the middle of road. It was both brave and confused. It did not cede the road to us. However as we passed it, you could tell it did not know its way back to the correct side of the road or where all the other cattle were. At least there was plenty of grass and water along the roadside, so there was no immediate danger.
After dodging livestock on the road, we arrived safely at Bryce Canyon.
Bryce Canyon is one of the busier national parks. Because of this, they have a shuttle system to reduce auto traffic. Today we could not use the shuttle system because we were headed to the southern most part of the park which is about 18 miles from where the shuttle runs.
The southern most part has a three part trail that is at the highest altitude in the park. The views are magnificent At 9000 feet the temperatures are nice as well. This is the view south of the park.
This is the view to the west.
Our introduction to hoodoos, the columns in the rocks, was just a hint of things to come.
It is hard to capture the intricacies of the wear and carvings in the rock formations.
Here we are at 9300 feet looking out over miles and miles of mountains, mesas, and much more.
This photo tries to show the difference of the nearby hoodoos to the rugged cliffs in the distance
As we started our trip north toward the main part of the park, we first stopped at Black Birch Canyon. The canyon gave a close up of some interesting columns and a long distance view to the east.
Here is some more detail of the column formations.
Ponderosa Canyon appears to have been named for the preponderance of Ponderosa Pines. It also had a great view.
Agua Canyon had a tower with multiple layers of sediment in it. It was interesting that the top layer is thicker than the lower layer. It looks very solid and unstable all at the same time.
This was called the Natural Bridge overlook for obvious reasons. While Arches National Park has the most arches in a small area, there seem to be arches everywhere if you are observant.
Farview and Piracy Point are adjacent to each other. The name Farview was a little confusing because some parts of it were called Fairview. You could still see a far distance off either way.
This photo is taken from Piracy Point. It actually has a better view than Farview.
The ledge sticking out in this photo is Piracy Point. It points to the south which is why the view is better than at Farview which points to the west. The southern view is much more open.
This was another of our challenge hikes. It is the Whiteman Connecting Trail. It connects to the under the rim trail about 1.5 miles down the canyon wall. We decided to give it a try. We went a little further than we should have because the hike back up in the hot weather was more difficult than anticipated. We did make it back though.
As you can easily see in this photo, there had been a recent fire on the Whiteman Connecting Trail. The lack of shade was more problematic than we thought it would be.
Our next overlook was Paria View. With the exception of the first stop of the day, this view had the best long distance views of the day. It also showed some very involved structures on the canyon walls.
Paria View provided a closer over the edge view than any other location of the day.
That plus the color variety made it a special place.
Our last stop for the day was a foretaste of what was to come the next day. Bryce Canyon Point is the end of the southern section of the park and the beginning of the main amphitheater portion of the park.
The hoodoos are far more numerous and much better defined.
In addition to the wonderful scenery on our tour today, we found numerous new types of flowering plants. Here is a small sample of what we saw. One special note about the picture in the lower left panel below. Notice that the flower is blooming right next to a tree burned by the recent fire. It is incredible to see such a recovery occur.
With all the views, hikes and plant life we saw, it was a very full day.