We have a date for house boating on Lake Powell in a few days, so we are passing time by touring Utah. We are back to Bryce for a couple of nights, to continue our explore of this spectacular Park.

We embarked in the early morning to travel the Scenic Drive. This 18 mile route allowed us to see the spectacular cliffs and long distance views across Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
Our first stop was breathtaking. Though the name tends to be misleading, Natural Bridge is one of several natural arches in the Park and creates a beautiful scene at this viewpoint. This arch, sculpted from some of the reddest rock of the Claron Formation (rich in iron oxide minerals), poses a stark contrast to the dark green of the Ponderosa forest that peeks through the arch from the canyon below.

We drove to the southern end to ogle Rainbow Point where the entirety of the park stretched out before us back to the north.

Spending a few minutes at both Rainbow and Yovimpa Points provided us with a geologic and geographic orientation, helping us to better understand the landscape and landforms that surround Bryce Canyon National Park, and thereby better appreciate the unique beauty of this National Park. Wow.

A highlight of our day was our drive to Fairyland Canyon, located one mile north of the Park entrance station. This was our first opportunity to see hoodoos at an "eye-to-eye" level.
"These hoodoos have inspired imaginations for years, and visitors today are bound to be as enchanted as were the Paiute Indians, who saw the hoodoos as ancient peoples turned to stone."










Located in the north end of the park, the structures that fill Fairyland Canyon are younger than those further to the south in the main amphitheater, and will be developed more fully as the erosional processes continue to wear away the land in a north and westward direction. Baby hoodoos... I love them!