Framedlight

After the marmots and a talk by one of the park rangers, Anne needed to see the rest of Bryce. As I explained in an earlier blog, Bryce Canyon is not a true canyon but rather a cliff face which is being eroded back by the action of frost and water. As you drive the length of Bryce there are stopping points where there are scenic overviews. These are mainly amphitheatres where for some reason a bite has been taken out of the side of the cliff, and erosion has created the dramatic hoodoo formations. The road and the Canyon finish in the south at Yovimpa Point and this is where we started. I did not take a large number of pictures as I had already done that on my previous visit with Mike, so I will just show a few. We ended the day at Bryce Point, as the sun was setting. Bryce is not the best place for sunset as it faces east, but I gave it a go! The clouds became quite heavy as the sun set but cleared in the 'blue hour'. Yovimpa Point The Backpacker, Agua Canyon ...

Arriving at Bryce Canyon we had passed through Red Canyon, which had looked particularly fine in the sunshine. We went to the Bryce Visitor Centre where there is a display on the prairie dogs, marmot type rodents who live in Bryce. We were keen to see them so we took advice on the best place and drove out to their 'town'. They were a little distance away from the road but we spotted them sitting meerkat style on top of their mounds looking out for danger and sometimes chewing on bits of vegetation which they held in their front paws. We also saw a northern flicker rooting around in the undergrowth. We were close to Sunset Point, so we went there first and were lucky enough to see a group of ponies trotting along one of the paths in the Canyon. In order to get a little more information we joined the ranger geological walk from Sunset to Sunrise Points. It was run by a slightly wacky lady but was good fun. I got a shot of Thor's Hammer, one of th...

Anne and I left the dubious delights of Las Vegas and set out north on I-15. Anne wanted to see Bryce and I was getting a second chance at photography there. About an hour after leaving Vegas, we stopped at a small recreation area just off I-15 for some lunch. Here the Virgin River can be seen on its journey from Zion to the Lake Mead Reservoir, around 40 miles east of Las Vegas. It was a lovely rest stop, although hot and barren, with some spectacular cacti. Ever ones for a little deviation off the proper route we stopped again on our journey north to look at Cedar Breaks National Monument, a sort of mini Bryce. The sun was starting to go down and there were some spectacular rays coming through the heavy clouds. From here it was a short hop past Navajo Lake, through an interesting area full of lava formations to our campsite near Bryce, where Anne had rented a tent. It was all set up with beds and a cooker, but it was a cold night at these higher elevations. ...