These are the tennis courts just outside the Zion National Park. We left Zion this morning and backtracked east to the Bryce Canyon National Park.
To get to Bryce, we lumber up a mountain range to 10,000 feet. The air is so thin that the peacocks can't get off the ground.
At the top of the mountain range is a large flat plateau covered with deep snow that lasts about ten miles. We see a a highway warning sign with a cow on the yellow diamond. The notion of high altitude cows makes us both laugh. I keep expecting oxygen masks to drop down from the ceiling.
Mr. Bryce was an early Mormon settler who moved near the canyon in 1825. Upon viewing the complex canyon from a peak at 8,800 feet, he is said to have commented, "That's a hell of a place to lose a cow."
The sandstone erosion patterns are fairly unique. The Indians called the pinnacles "hoodoos" and might have thought of them as people turned to stone.
We have a hike planned along the rim today. Maybe a horseback ride down into the canyon tomorrow, then on to the Capitol Reef National park.
No comments:
Post a Comment