Hiking down into Bryce's Canyon, looking at Hoodoos
Cowboy ranch including steaks, fire, marshmallows, and s'mores
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Bryce's Canyon National Park encompasses what is technically not a canyon but an amphitheater. At the top of the miles of cliffs one stands looking out onto an ever decreasing gradient as the land falls away. The beauty of Bryce's Canyon though is not in a simple view out towards the distant mesas (the flat topped hills seen in every Cowboy film ever), but in the hoodoos carved by wind and rain that stand along the wall of the amphitheater and down to its floor.
Hoodoos are columns of the local sandstone left behind as the surrounding cliff erodes more quickly. They too are slowly eroding, but are left first as wide sand covered buttresses branching out from the cliff, then as the edges are sloughed of they become narrow ridges of rock. These are further washed by rain and sand blasted by wind, becoming thin until holes appear. Becoming larger and more numerous the holes, or "windows", join together, leaving the pillars behind. The wind smoothies these into increasingly rounded structures, each of unique design.
The place is littered with hoodoos. It is like a petrified forest. We walked for 3 hours, first along the rim taking in the view, before descending down to walk amongst them. Our tour guide said that he always thinks they look fake. As if Disney Land had just built them all. It's too bizarre, too unusual, too unique. There's just so many of them, and they're so big. I can kind of agree with him. They're so strangely haunting. But amazing and beautiful and well worth spending the three hours exploring.
Then it started raining.
The late afternoon and that night were spent at a ranch. A cowboy ranch. They had the bulls horned skull over the gateway, wooden veranda with swinging doors, horses, amazing views, a barn to party in, everything. Even people in cowboy boots, cowboy hats, leather chaps with tassels, the accents, the works. We were given a steak dinner with potatoes, corn, American style baked beans and homemade lemonade.
It was great.
Except for the rain.
We got the tents up just in time for the heavens to open. And they did open. Within minutes we were hidden under shelter watching out tents getting battered downpour in the middle of a desert. I ran down and got the cooler of beer out of the trailer as firewood was brought in off the back of a quad bike. We watched the rain until bored and cold before retreating into the barn. A couch was dragged over to within a couple of feet of the fire and here we sat, hands and feet spread forth to soak up the heat.
A few marshmallows, a couple of beers, and we decided to forgo tenting for the night. All of our camping gear was hauled up to the barn and here we slept, by the fire, warm and dry, away from the storms outside.
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