No pun intended, but the spires of Bryce Canyon are something to behold! Erosion has formed thousands of fantastic shapes called hoodoos. Again, the vastness of the landscape is nearly impossible to photograph in a way that does does justice to its sheer magnificence.
Today, we were able to hike down into the canyon on a three mile trail that weaves through narrow, deep slot canyons, through small tunnels, and up well-engineered switchbacks. The trail, called Queen's Garden, is quite dramatic. The place is well visited by foreign tourists, mostly Japanese, European, and Indian. In fact, they seemed to outnumber us Americans by a goodly margin. This is certainly great for the tourism industry here.
There is a great shuttle bus system in the park that makes getting around very easy and convenient. Parking is a nightmare, but there was never any difficulty getting on the buses.
The lodge here is a 1920s original, developed by the Union Pacific Railroad to bring tourists to the area. It is built of rustic wood and stone, and has many outlying cabins that reflect the same architecture. We would love to stay in one of those cabins!
We are staying just outside the park in part of a very large resort complex known as Ruby's Inn, which dates to 1916. It includes a hotel, several restaurants, stores, and a very large campground.
The high temperature here was 50 degrees with wind gusts to 40 mph. Snow is expected tonight, but hopefully, it won't stick. We are well equipped, and were able to stay warm and comfortable. It is amazing to see how many tourists are running around in shorts, flip-flops, and light cotton jackets. They were freezing!
Tomorrow, we are tackling an ambitious 8 mile hike into the canyon on the Fairyland Trail. This is a less-visited area of the park that is reputed to be one of the most scenic. We will let you know what happens.
To all of you who are following this blog in Singapore, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, India, and Denmark, we want to say welcome, and thanks for viewing our adventures. We had no idea that this simple blog would attract a truly international audience.
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