A day in the park...From our nearly furnitureless and completely featureless room behind a gas station in Cannonville, Utah, we headed out this morning for our sixth national or tribal park in twelve days. The in-between days we spent in national forests, state parks, and some of the most scenic byways of this beautiful country. The park itself is easy to reach, the busy commercial enterprises attached to it are kept on the outside, and the roads and overlooks maintained by the National Park Service are easy to travel and make a personal tour a delight, whether you are capable of difficult hikes, or prefer a more relaxed way to view. Our first stop was at Sunset Point:
The Navajo red sandstone monuments and hoodoos from Sunset Point.
Bryce Point...
Note the tourists in the distance at Bryce Point.
Mary Frances with Bryce Point behind her.
A million hoodoos and one yahoo at Bryce Point.
Beautiful masonry of nature from Bryce Point.
Hoodoos from Bryce Point
One thing we've realized on this journey is the futility of showing in a snapshot the beauty of a large-scale panorama. Like it or not, our photographs are only that. Even the professional photography we've seen in the photo books available in the gift shops lack the most important thing: the ability to turn one's head to capture the whole scene, not just a piece of it. Also, we would need 3D to adequately show how high, how distant and how distinct things are from each other. We can only urge people to see these magnificent places for themselves.
Farview Point...
Farview Point
More of what makes Bryce Canyon magnificent, from Farview Point
Thank you, National Park Service, from one federal employee to others.
Rainbow Point...
More amazement at Rainbow Point, elevation 9115 feet
A family of hoodoos greets us at Rainbow Point.
Think somebody might be getting sick of my saying, "Smile!"
A great formation from Rainbow Point
You would think, judging from the many photographs of red rocks we've posted in these pages over the last 11 days, that one of these great western parks is much like another, but that isn't even close to the truth. What we've learned is that they are all so different from each other that we are afraid to miss even one of them. Zion and Bryce Canyon do have some similar formations, but you visit Zion from the bottom looking up, and Bryce from the top looking down!
Black Birch Canyon...
We named the formation at the center the Hoodoo Queen, Black Birch Canyon.
Ponderosa Canyon...
Agua Canyon...
A happy couple at Agua Canyon, elevation approximately 8900 feet
More great formations
What appears to be the ruins of a civilization of giants, Agua Canyon
We hope that all our readers were able to see Ken Burns's new series about the National Parks on PBS, which started tonight, and continues for the next five nights. It should be great.
Natural Bridge...
The great Natural Bridge, and the forest a mile below.
Sandstone formations beyond the Natural Bridge.
Sunrise Point...
One of many views beyond Sunrise Point
Riders on mules and burros descend from Sunrise Point
Mary Frances contemplates at the end of a beautiful day.
Depending on your point of view, this might be considered a bit distant from civilization, or from a different perspective the essence of what civilization should be. For those of us spoiled with having all our petty wants within easy reach, there are some small trials. For example, yesterday we asked the proprietress of this place where we might find a large store like a Wal-Mart or a Target, and she mentioned that there was one 120 miles away or so. Today, as we left Bryce Canyon exhausted, happy, and starved for the news of the world, we drove 21 miles to Panguitch to buy a Sunday Newspaper. "Nobody here buys newspapers," the lady in the convenience store explained. "A few have them delivered a day after they come out, but most people just get their news from TV or the internet." As it turns out, she was incorrect. We did find a current paper in a small grocery market a few miles from here. But it did make us realize this is another place altogether, baby.
Again, we've had a beautiful day in a beautiful place. At the end of each day we look at each other and wonder how it can get any better; and the next day a new bit of magic unfolds. We'll keep trying to report it to you faithfully, and hope you can see these wonders for yourselves.
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