Glorious Utah, first steps into Bryce

Feeling rather bloated after our late lunch of fish and chips, we thought we should drive down to the Canyon, get our pass, have a quick trip to the Visitor Centre and start exploring.

On the road from Panguitch into Bryce you pass through another park called Red Canyon, for obvious reasons. We stopped there for a brief look around but decided to move out when a tourist bus arrived and we were inundated by the human tide.

We passed mule deer feeding on the side of the road and an area of burnt trees as we drove into Bryce.

Bryce Canyon runs roughly north south and lies at the northern edge of the Grand Staircase, a huge geological area which extends from southern Utah down through Zion to the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, The rocks are sedimentary, the youngest being at Bryce and the oldest at the Grand Canyon. They are classified according to their colour, Bryce being comprised of a pink stone known as the Claron Formation.
Bryce is not a true canyon as it has not been formed by the action of a river cutting through the Paunsaugunt Plateau, but rather  by frost and headwater erosion.
There is one road that runs the length of Bryce and so we drove to the end of it at Yovimpa and Rainbow Points, and worked our way back from there. Here is the National Park map.

The Canyon peters out beyond Yovimpa Point but you can get a really good view down the Grand Staircase from here.

It was mid September when we visited but Bryce is high (2,400 - 2.700 m) and it was 6.30 in the evening, so it was time to put on a jumper. We drove up the road to Black Birch Canyon. There are pretty good views from here as well. All the pull-ins for parking are on the right and are arranged at the edge of the various amphitheatres that line the canyon's edge. And so the road is best travelled from north to south. In the evening sun the rock was beginning to glow.

You can see what a wealth of landscape to photograph is here, and so I will continue with this journey next time in this blog.