Saturday, April 12, 2014

Many More Canyons

Bryce Canyon is not just one canyon but a series of canyons along a 40 mile stretch of the Paunsaugunt Plateau on the west side the park.  Then all along its eastern rim the Paria River has aided in the erosion and sculpting of the rock along with rain, wind, freezing and thawing waters.

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Today’s exploration took us south along the park road for 18 miles where we stopped at numerous vista points to see more of the parks features.  Swamp Canyon, Farview Point, Natural Bridge, Agua Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, and Rainbow Point are just some of the stops.   The further south we went, the more elevation we gained and so more snow was still on the ground at Rainbow Point where we walked a mile loop to take in different vantage points of the same hoodoos and canyon walls. If we had more energy and stamina we could have hiked some of the longer trails at the bottom of the canyons or on the under-the-rim trails.

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The far-off views were fairly hazy but I could swear we could see the Grand Canyon (but John says I’m directionally challenged and there is no way I could see that far). 

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