Hoodoos


Today can best be summed up by a guy we overheard today saying, “I have said ‘Wow’ 50 times today”.  That is what we experienced today at Bryce Canyon National Park…the ‘Wow Factor’.

But I get ahead of myself.  The temperature this morning when we got up was 6 degrees.  We knew there would be radical differences between daytime highs and nighttime lows, but you have to experience this to believe it.  Bryce Canyon this morning was below freezing.  They get more than 180 days of the year where temperatures swing widely between freezing nights and warm afternoons.  We experienced one of those 180 days today.

Today we got up and personal with the ‘hoodoos’.  We were able to hike down off the rim in the early morning.  You are probably by now wondering, what the heck is a ‘hoodoo’?  Simply put, they are bulbous columns made of rock.  Hopefully that is what our pictures will show.

We then hiked the rim and were able to look down upon these strange looking formations.  From High above…and I mean high above at more than 8000 feet, the scene below changes in a way that is impossible to describe.  So, I will once again just say, “WOW”.

Tomorrow we move on to what we know will be a whole new experience…The Grand Canyon.

Distance Traveled = 117 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Robin, House Sparrow, Cowbird, Turkey Vulture, Deer, Scrub Jay, Stellar Jay, Western Bluebird, White-throated Swift, Violet-green Swallow, Utah Prairie Dog, Uinta Chipmunk.


Hoodoos


More Hoodoos


Natural Tunnel on the trail


Easier way up/down than we took!


Trail down into the Hoodoos


Hiking up to Inspiration Point


Hoodoos from above


More Hoodoos from above

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Final Thoughts

Image
I have always found it difficult to write the final blog.   This one is no different.   As we pulled into our yard last evening, reality hit…this adventure had come to an end.   But we have so many memories. Being on the road for 3 ½ months, we traveled 22,742 km through 23 States and 1 Province.   We know that we will be asked, “What was your favourite place that you visited?”   That is impossible to answer.   We saw and experienced so many things.   The variety of landscapes in the United States is simply ‘mind boggling’!   It has so many beautiful National Parks and we had the pleasure of visiting quite a few of them. It is time to wrap this up.   We would like to thank all the people who have taken the time to follow our travels.   It has been fun to share our experiences with you once again. We would also like to thank all of our friends and family who shared in and made our adventure possible.   Without your help and support Sue and I would not have been able to lea
Read more

Up One Side and Down the Other

Image
We drove north today to South Dakota’s capital City, Pierre.   It is pronounced ‘Peer’…only the Americans can pronounce a clearly French word in such a manner.   Pierre has a population of only 14,000.   It is the 2 nd smallest US State Capital.   There is also nothing there.   If you wanted to tour their capital buildings, you had to give them 48 hours notice…not sure what that was about.   Didn’t matter, we probably would not have anyway! What we did get to do today though, was drive up one side of the ‘Mighty Mo’ (The Missouri River) and down the other.   The river is a big one.   In places it is 2 miles wide.   It has a large water shed and this is the river that caused a lot of the flooding problems in the late Spring and early Summer.   It is still running far higher than usual for this time of year.   It dumps into the Mississippi.   We can only imagine how bad things must have gotten down in Louisiana after we left there…the river was already pushing the limits of its
Read more

A Day to Do Nothing

Image
Once again it rained all night and most of the morning.   We are glad we did not have to take down the tent trailer.   Again, things are wet.   Today we truly did nothing.   The most exciting thing was having breakfast in a Norwegian Restaurant in the town of Hayward.   We will be back on the trail east tomorrow. Distance Traveled = 29 km.   Wildlife Sightings = Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sandhill Crane, Robin, Black-capped Chickadee, Chipping Sparrow. Rather interesting campsite...surprisingly private! Only in Wisconsin...can you tell it was a slow day?
Read more