Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park is about 170 miles from Zion but it felt like a completely different world.  It is known as Hoo-Doo Heaven (the name for the odd rock spires) and it is really like no place we've ever been before.  Peering over the rim of Bryce Canyon, it seemed like we had landed on another planet with strange, almost scary looking rock formations below. And everything was shades of red and orange! Yet, surrounding the canyon were forests of pines and aspens.  The elevation was up to 8,800 feet and the weather was as changeable as the hour;  fiercely windy and cold one minute, and then baking hot the next. It was truly a study in contrasts. Rob and I stayed in a nearby "one-horse-town" called Tropic, with one market, a pizza joint, a Mormon Church ( of course, this is Utah, after all!) a bank and a few motels.  While it was nothing "to look at" from the outside, the place was clean and the owners friendly.  We sat in the late afternoons, cocktails in hand, watching the distance 'hoo-doos' mountains glow in the setting sun. Part of the fun of being on a road trip happens when you are just relaxing and taking in the new scenery, and realizing how great it is to be there.

The Native Americans in this region called the rock formations Legion People, believing that the Mighty Coyote turned the bad humans into stone. Here, the bad people were talking to each other, when coyote changed them forever.

The "Hoo-Doo" on the right is called the Thor's Hammer.

The view from the bottom of the Navajo Loop trail- which goes down into the canyon.

Bryce Canyon is known as "Hoo- Doo Heaven," the name of these rock spires!

The depth of the Navajo Loop Trail through these massive rock canyons is more obvious when you notice the size of the hikers below.