Day VII: It's “Hoodoo” not Voodou!

Day VII: It's “Hoodoo” not Voodou!

Hiking in  Bryce Canyon National Park

Up well before dawn, we were on our way to Bryce just as the sun was warming western peaks of Zion.  Our next adventure would take us 50 miles northeast of Zion and 1,000 feet in altitude higher.  We were about to discover another Utah marvel, the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park. 

Geographically, the top of Zion National almost lines up perfectly with the bottom of Bryce and so our van had to first climb the switchbacks of Mount Carmel and then into its famous winding tunnel...this 1.1 mile drive, accentuated with windows chiseled out of the sandstone cliff so that the magical sneak-peek of Zions 4,000 foot walls whets the appetite. Drivers beware!

Bryce Canyon National Park is located in the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau in Utah. The attraction is Bryce's forest of bewildering giant sandstone towers called hoodoos. Elevation, climate, rock type and the plateau's orientation are elements that, when combined, form these unusual shapes carved by erosion...veritable works of art called hoodoos. 

And no where else in the world can you find a concentration of pinnacles with odd shapes like those found in Bryce Canyon.

Each sculpted by time...each mesmerizing,

they seem to reach up from the canyon floor and draw you down into the valley with them.

For three hours, we walked among them, spellbound by their size and mystical form. 

 For all of us though, the culmination came as we ascended back up to the canyon rim over 26 switchbacks. 

During the ascent, we were bathed in a soft light that flooded the narrow vertical canyon. 

I even felt a little bit like we were in a scene of an “Indiana Jones” movie.

Just another exquisite day in Utah!