In technical terms Bryce Canyon isn’t a canyon at all. There is no river that runs through the bottom, and the canyon-like structure was formed as part of the sediments of a pre-historic lake which have since been moved by shifting plates.
In addition to not being a canyon, its forms are also like nothing we have ever seen before. There are “columns”, “arches”, and “piles” of bright orange, red, and yellow rocks that look like sand piles from afar. Both of us were struck by how strange it appeared, and thought it looked like a scene from a movie like The Land Before Time.
Bryce Canyon is best known for sunrise and sunset point, where the rock formations get illuminated by the changing sun, bringing forth its bright colors. We started out our day at 5 am to see the sunset. A cold front had swept through the region, and it was a brisk 35 degrees when we woke up (which was the coldest on the trip thus far on record . . . we’re keeping track of different things which will be explained in a future post).
As we shivered, bundled in blankets, and waited for the sun, we sat rife with anticipation. When the sun finally came up, it was breath-taking, and the group of 100 tourists at the view point immediately snapped picture after picture. It was a great way for Laura to start her 26th birthday.
From there, we were too tired (and cold) to start hiking immediately, so we went back to the hotel to rest before taking up another 6-mile hike. It was yet another great hike, in which we saw the rock formations up close and got to the bottom of the canyon before getting to an elevation of 9,000 feet (another record to date).
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