The view from Bryce Point
We took a nature walk this morning at Mossy Cave, which is a little removed from the main portion of the park. You walk below some lovely hoodoos and above a small fast-flowing creek. The creek is actually a diverted fork of the Sevier River. It provides water to the town of Tropic which sits below Bryce. The town can turn it on and off as needed and have rights to it because the diversion was made around 1890, before the park existed.
Sniffing a ponderosa pine. Some folks smell vanilla, some butterscotch, some 10W40 motor oil.
The cave is really just a curved overhang of rock with water seeping from its roof. It would be fun to see in early spring when the dripping water has had all winter to freeze and build columns of ice. The cave was mossy, but it was like a very humble version of Weeping Rock in Zion.
The view from Bryce Point is not humble. It’s spectacular. Bryce Canyon NP is kind of a one-trick pony and the trick are the hoodoos. As the edge of the plateau erodes, it forms fins of rock. Through cycles of freezing and thawing, the weaker parts crumble leaving strange towers and spires of rock — hoodoos — and the occasional arch. It’s a good trick.
We took a walk down among the formations on a trail called the Queen’s Garden. It was excellent. If you ever come to Bryce be sure to take a hike down into the hoodoos and forest. This walk culminates at a view of a hoodoo that supposedly looks like Queen Victoria in a big gown. One word: anticlimactic.
That center hoodoo is Queen Victoria, supposedly. She’s the part above the thin disc of rock, and looks like she’s wearing a gown. She’s in profile with her crowned head at the tippy top. Holy monolithic monarchs, Batman!
We continued on and climbed back up through Wall Street — much more appealing than the New York version. You walk through a slot canyon with a few tall, straight douglas firs growing right between the cliffs. Near the rim, you can see another named feature, called Thor’s Hammer: a big square rock resting on a narrower spire. Don’t let the few named features distract you from the thousands of unnamed ones. They are equally fascinating.
We headed home, had an early dinner and played Ticket to Ride. We wanted to get a good night’s rest so we could get up for sunrise at Bryce Point.
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