Fri, Sep 28th - Travel from Glendale to Bryce Canyon, UT

Today we drove from Bauer’s Campground in Glendale to Ruby’s in Bryce, UT. Another beautiful sunny, blue-sky day and beautiful scenery. This drive took us north on hwy 89 to just south of Panguitch, where we turned east on Hwy 12 and drove thru Red Canyon with its beautiful red hoodoos. Panguitch is the Paiute Indian name for water or fish. After getting parked at the campground, we (Tolsons, Wittenbergs and Wagners) headed into the Park and stopped in the Visitor Center to watch the 20 min film about Bryce Canyon. The film mentioned “quaking” aspen trees, which I find a very fitting word to describe how they move in the wind. We picked up a few long-sleeve T-shirts so we can be walking advertisements for Bryce when we get back to Virginia! Being later in the afternoon, we just stopped at the Sunset Point lookout and walked “part way” down the Navajo Trail that meandered down thru the Hoodoos and then we walked along the rim back to Sunrise Point. Tomorrow we will go into the park again and do some more sightseeing.

We have seen several beautiful Stellar Jays, but never close enough to get a picture until tonight. We all got together for Happy Hour and then to finish up leftovers of sandwich meats, salads, etc. and then sat around the fire to get warm—it was earmuffs and gloves CHILLY! A Stellar Jay flew in and stayed close by for a long time to see if he could get a handout. Of course he did. I didn’t have my camera, but I’ll take it tomorrow evening to see if he comes back.

Here's the view of Hoodoos from Sunset Point.

And here are John & Judy Wittenberg, Bill & Judy Wagner and Chuck & I.

If you look on the bottom right of this picture, you will see part of the Navajo Trail at Sunset Point. No we did not walk it all! It was quite a steep incline going down and then coming back up to the top and meandered in and out of the Hoodoos all the way over to Sunrise Point.


For the Grandkids and Nephew Mason: What is a Hoodoo?

“Hoodoos–a pinnacle or other odd-shaped rock left standing by the forces of erosion. Hoodoo—to cast a spell. From voodoo: something which causes bad luck.

The colors at Bryce are the result of oxidized minerals—red, pink and orange from iron; purple from manganese. The whites are purer limestone.

Bryce’s climate is ideal for hoodoos. With freezing temperatures more than 200 days a year, a relentless cycle of freezing and thawing widens cracks in the cliffs. Runoff scours away the frost-wedged debris and cuts, narrow gullies between walls, eventually isolating pinnacles and exposing them to even more weathering.

To grasp the hoodoo’s giant scale and for closer views of hoodoos-in-the-making, take a short hike down among them on either the Queens Garden or Navajo Trails. In spring listen to Bryce Canyon eroding. Small pebbles bounce down as the sun warms the slopes. Large rockfalls usually occur at night, when they are not often seen or heard.

The Paiute Indians, who lived in the Bryce Canyon region when settlers and other people from the eastern states came to southern Utah, accounted for the hoodoos as the “Legend People” whom Coyote had turned to stone.” We have seen many large ravens and you can understand how they played such a part in Indian culture along with the coyotes.


www.nps.gov/brca Bryce Canyon National Park
http://www.scenicbyway12.com/ Hwy 12 is the road we traveled over to get to Bryce and will continue on to get to Torry, UT tomorrow, Sunday.
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/paiute/paiutehistory.htm Paiute Indian History