Bryce Canyon - A Fantasy-Fest
I remember the feelings that ran through me when my husband Richard and I visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It was June 2010, one of our annual trips from Scotland to the USA, to visit Richard’s mom, and take the opportunity to do a short road trip at the same time. It was, for me, the most incredible vista, the memory of which I thought would last me a lifetime. You know, when you finally reach that time in the assisted living home and share the best and worst of times with your inmates… this one place would be the one to top it all.
For me, standing on the edge of a precipice with views that extend for miles over more than 180 degrees of buttes and cliffs wearing layered coats of color, was the most humbling and spiritual feeling I had ever felt looking at a geological wonder. My heart soared and I felt on top of the world and closer to heaven all at the same time. I cried at the beauty of the scene, and my existence in this wonderful world. I finally understood the word “Glory”. And perhaps that was the day the wish to travel the US in a fifth wheel trailer and experience its other wonders was born.
Six years later we are living the dream. Within the last year and half we have already visited some amazing locations, wonderful in different ways, and I’ve blogged and taken pictures of the places that moved me. The stunning Black Canyon of the Gunnison came to rank second place; I placed the vast Canyonlands third on my list of favourites, then Arches… we seem to have been ramping up the pace of place awarding in the last few months as we tour the same geological area that gave birth to the Grand Canyon. And why?
Because we are in the “Grand Circle”, a name given by the tourist industry to the best of the south west of the US. A circular area of natural wonders, visible by driving along Scenic Byways, through the mountains, monuments and mesas of western Colorado, the dramatic pinnacles of New Mexico, Utah’s soaring stone arches, and beside the carved river valleys of the Colorado and its tributaries into Arizona. This region is rich in ancient American and modern American history – from Pictographs and ancient Puebloan artefacts, to the Old Spanish Trail and wanted posters of Butch Cassidy – whose home town, incidentally, is just up the road. In fact, there is enough in this area to keep us going for years.
Actually I think we shall be well into our dotage and Benny and the Jet will be in the truck and trailer home in the sky long before we see everything within this Grand Circle, let alone any of the iconic rest of the US!
But I digress. Let me tell you about where we are now. Panguitch is a little town about 30 miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park,
25 miles west of Red Canyon, close to Scenic Byway 12 and 14, about 20 miles east of Cedar Breaks National Monument, (a smaller but less accessible version of Bryce Canyon) whose rim lies at an elevation of 10,000 feet, near to Brian Head ski resort, and in-between all these amazing places is the Dixie National Forest. Panguitch is a wonderful base to visit all the above. It’s a tourist stop these days, and consists mostly of motels. Our campsite The Hitch-n-Post RV Park, is especially favoured by campers with ATV’s (all terrain vehicles) because there is plenty of off road activity around here. The town was originally founded in 1864 by Mormon Pioneers and is unusual in that the houses are brick built – all that local red clay came in handy – and they have a distinctly Dutch look to them. It sits at about 6000 feet above sea level and by September has daytime high temperatures of around 82F (28C) and at dawn can dip as low 39F (4C). We have our winter quilt on the bed, but wear shorts during the day. A strange concept for folks from Scotland, I can tell you!
But what great hiking weather... and that is what we have been doing here. The variety of terrain and scenery is incredible. I think this placard I found at Red Canyon (so called because the high iron content makes it even redder here than elsewhere) best describes the topography of the Grand Circle:
Aspens shaking fall coloured leaves;
cool basalt caves and their beautiful ceilings, home to bats in the winter;
powerful waterfalls, flowing out of underground basalt pipes miles from the water source;
pine smells; sticky cones and alpine lakes; so far we have encountered them all in the first two weeks of our month long stay.
But our favourite place has to be Bryce Canon.
We cannot get enough of it. This national Park is teeming with tourists all year round. The less able take the shuttle bus along the rim to different viewpoints, or you can walk along the relatively flat rim from stop to stop. It is steep to descend and ascend, but numerous switchbacks
make it doable for most people, with rests along the way, and those with limited time can do a quick loop hike within two hours. If you have longer you can go on 3 - 5 mile trails by horse, or on foot.
We have been back 4 times already because we are totally hooked. It is enchanting enough to look at this fantasyland of colourful spires from the rim – quite another to hike into the three rock amphitheatres that make up the park, and view those immense hoodoos and spires from below.
And you could give them your own names. Thor's Hammer looked more like a fist to me than a hammer.
Although I do concede that the rock that was named after Queen Victoria is most deserving.
The trails interweave so you can walk for miles, and they meander up and down, in and around the rock, and you know the view is going to be even better around the next corner, over that next hill. It is the most exciting place I have ever hiked because you get a new view fix every few yards. Our cameras never stopped clicking.
So Saskia, is Bryce better than the Grand Canyon, I hear you ask…
Hmmm… The thing is, the feelings they inspired are different. Maybe because Grand Canyon was the first place I ever saw that raised those majestic feelings of awe I have described, it holds a special place in my heart. Just why I reacted like that, then and there, might also have had something to do with the time of my life and what was happening then. Spiritual moments happen for all kinds of reasons. For example, I was very emotional during my visit to the Grand Mesa and the Ranger guide to the wildflowers of that area, but I was due to give a talk about my mother and her war and post war experiences later that day.
But it is also a little like comparing oranges and apples. For me, Grand Canyon was about the overwhelming SIZE of what I was looking at, and the eons of time that had passed to create that landscape. It was about a concept, a consideration of humanity and my place in the world. By the time I saw Bryce, I had already given that concept consideration. Bryce was about enjoying the spectacular moment, from minute to minute. And what a spectacle!
For me, standing on the edge of a precipice with views that extend for miles over more than 180 degrees of buttes and cliffs wearing layered coats of color, was the most humbling and spiritual feeling I had ever felt looking at a geological wonder. My heart soared and I felt on top of the world and closer to heaven all at the same time. I cried at the beauty of the scene, and my existence in this wonderful world. I finally understood the word “Glory”. And perhaps that was the day the wish to travel the US in a fifth wheel trailer and experience its other wonders was born.
Six years later we are living the dream. Within the last year and half we have already visited some amazing locations, wonderful in different ways, and I’ve blogged and taken pictures of the places that moved me. The stunning Black Canyon of the Gunnison came to rank second place; I placed the vast Canyonlands third on my list of favourites, then Arches… we seem to have been ramping up the pace of place awarding in the last few months as we tour the same geological area that gave birth to the Grand Canyon. And why?
Because we are in the “Grand Circle”, a name given by the tourist industry to the best of the south west of the US. A circular area of natural wonders, visible by driving along Scenic Byways, through the mountains, monuments and mesas of western Colorado, the dramatic pinnacles of New Mexico, Utah’s soaring stone arches, and beside the carved river valleys of the Colorado and its tributaries into Arizona. This region is rich in ancient American and modern American history – from Pictographs and ancient Puebloan artefacts, to the Old Spanish Trail and wanted posters of Butch Cassidy – whose home town, incidentally, is just up the road. In fact, there is enough in this area to keep us going for years.
Actually I think we shall be well into our dotage and Benny and the Jet will be in the truck and trailer home in the sky long before we see everything within this Grand Circle, let alone any of the iconic rest of the US!
But I digress. Let me tell you about where we are now. Panguitch is a little town about 30 miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park,
25 miles west of Red Canyon, close to Scenic Byway 12 and 14, about 20 miles east of Cedar Breaks National Monument, (a smaller but less accessible version of Bryce Canyon) whose rim lies at an elevation of 10,000 feet, near to Brian Head ski resort, and in-between all these amazing places is the Dixie National Forest. Panguitch is a wonderful base to visit all the above. It’s a tourist stop these days, and consists mostly of motels. Our campsite The Hitch-n-Post RV Park, is especially favoured by campers with ATV’s (all terrain vehicles) because there is plenty of off road activity around here. The town was originally founded in 1864 by Mormon Pioneers and is unusual in that the houses are brick built – all that local red clay came in handy – and they have a distinctly Dutch look to them. It sits at about 6000 feet above sea level and by September has daytime high temperatures of around 82F (28C) and at dawn can dip as low 39F (4C). We have our winter quilt on the bed, but wear shorts during the day. A strange concept for folks from Scotland, I can tell you!
But what great hiking weather... and that is what we have been doing here. The variety of terrain and scenery is incredible. I think this placard I found at Red Canyon (so called because the high iron content makes it even redder here than elsewhere) best describes the topography of the Grand Circle:
Aspens shaking fall coloured leaves;
cool basalt caves and their beautiful ceilings, home to bats in the winter;
powerful waterfalls, flowing out of underground basalt pipes miles from the water source;
pine smells; sticky cones and alpine lakes; so far we have encountered them all in the first two weeks of our month long stay.
But our favourite place has to be Bryce Canon.
We cannot get enough of it. This national Park is teeming with tourists all year round. The less able take the shuttle bus along the rim to different viewpoints, or you can walk along the relatively flat rim from stop to stop. It is steep to descend and ascend, but numerous switchbacks
make it doable for most people, with rests along the way, and those with limited time can do a quick loop hike within two hours. If you have longer you can go on 3 - 5 mile trails by horse, or on foot.
We have been back 4 times already because we are totally hooked. It is enchanting enough to look at this fantasyland of colourful spires from the rim – quite another to hike into the three rock amphitheatres that make up the park, and view those immense hoodoos and spires from below.
And you could give them your own names. Thor's Hammer looked more like a fist to me than a hammer.
Although I do concede that the rock that was named after Queen Victoria is most deserving.
The trails interweave so you can walk for miles, and they meander up and down, in and around the rock, and you know the view is going to be even better around the next corner, over that next hill. It is the most exciting place I have ever hiked because you get a new view fix every few yards. Our cameras never stopped clicking.
So Saskia, is Bryce better than the Grand Canyon, I hear you ask…
Hmmm… The thing is, the feelings they inspired are different. Maybe because Grand Canyon was the first place I ever saw that raised those majestic feelings of awe I have described, it holds a special place in my heart. Just why I reacted like that, then and there, might also have had something to do with the time of my life and what was happening then. Spiritual moments happen for all kinds of reasons. For example, I was very emotional during my visit to the Grand Mesa and the Ranger guide to the wildflowers of that area, but I was due to give a talk about my mother and her war and post war experiences later that day.
But it is also a little like comparing oranges and apples. For me, Grand Canyon was about the overwhelming SIZE of what I was looking at, and the eons of time that had passed to create that landscape. It was about a concept, a consideration of humanity and my place in the world. By the time I saw Bryce, I had already given that concept consideration. Bryce was about enjoying the spectacular moment, from minute to minute. And what a spectacle!
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