Memorial Day Weekend: Bryce Canyon (3 of 3)

The last day and a half of our trip took us to Bryce Canyon. It has a pretty amazing landscape with all these strange rock structures called "hoodoos."

We took a 3-mile hike into the canyon.

Power fist!

This looks like a dragon. Or a rabid Alf.

Crocodile? Pelican? Snipe?

A couple natural bridges in the canyon.

The taller structure on the left is called "Thor's Hammer."

After hiking up a couple hundred feet of switchbacks, we came across some chipmunks - an apparent mother and child. The mother kept trying to lead the baby out of this hole and down the canyon. The baby was reluctant / afraid. We watched for about ten minutes with some other folks - four different languages were being spoken but when the mother finally carried the baby in its mouth down the canyon, there was a collective "Awww!"

A pair of familiar folks standing over the canyon.

This is what was behind us.

Here are some more shots around the park.

More wildlife.

A waterfall in the middle of the desert.

A final look back at the park before driving to SLC again.

What a fun weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend: Southern Utah (2 of 3)

Here are some pictures from the Kanab, Utah area. The first set are from Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This whole area is covered in pink sand torn from the sandstone cliffs by the wind. We stumbled upon it by accident. It was pretty amazing.

Our shadows in the pink sand.

The heavy sand did not, however, stop trees and other vegetation from popping up.

Also just outside of Kanab is the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Here are some shots of it from the road.

Many colors comprise the striated cliffside.

We think this one looks like an angry ghost.

Red stripe.

Memorial Day Weekend: Grand Canyon (1 of 3)

Here are some pics from our trip to Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim). Some of the pictures were somewhat hazy, but overall I think they give a good idea of the size of the canyon and what we were able to view.

Coming into the park, the wildlife was abundant.


Dave looking out at the canyon from Bright Angel Point.

And here's Kate!

Dave and Kate and the canyon.

A squirrel playing it dangerous above the canyon!

The park is heavily forested at the north rim.

Some shots of the canyon!

You can see a little sliver of the Colorado River in this one.

One of the many lizards we encountered.

Kate stands above the canyon.

As does Dave.

The canyon is (obviously) massive. We did not have a chance to go down into the canyon itself, and these pictures don't quite capture it, but it was extremely impressive.

Capitol Reef National Park

Last weekend, we visited Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. We saw some amazing geology, with red rock everywhere in incredible formations. (We apologize for the large number of pictures but there was a lot to capture).

As the day started, the sky was blue.

This picture shows "Chimney Rock"



Here's a close up of it.

This is a trail near the north end of the park.

In the afternoon, the clouds rolled in. Luckily, it did not rain.

It is hard to capture it in the picture, but these were towering rocks. HUGE!

Here we are on our hike!

Kate is VERY small against these rocks.

This area is known as Capitol Gorge. Pioneers and settlers traveled through here. At one point, it was apparently a one-lane road where cars had a very difficult time passing each other. The settlers wrote their names on the walls of the canyon as they passed through.

This is the "Egyptian Temple."

Here's the Fremont River. The blue sky returned!

Walking along another trail....

"Hickman Bridge"

Here we are beneath "Hickman Bridge"

"The Castle"

On our way out of the park....

As we headed north, the clouds rolled in. We eventually hit a big storm, but we managed to get this shot before the rain got too heavy.

It was an amazing Sunday afternoon, seeing many incredible rock formations!