Bryce Canyon and The Vermilion Cliffs

Our day at Bryce Canyon National Park started with rain.  Luckily, Tyler and I were prepared for such a time like this (thanks to Grammie for the graduation money which = new raincoat...this saved us $12 on attractive plastic trash bag ponchos...but Kolby and Emily looked really good in them!).  

Bryce Canyon, though it did have some hiking trails, had a lot of scenic outlooks.  We were planning on visiting multiple lookouts, so we decided to try and wait out the rain, before doing any hiking, by driving to the furthest lookout.  Once we got there this is what we saw...

We were basically hanging out in a cloud, a cloud that kept us from seeing anything 10ft. in front of us.  So, we headed back to the car (it was freezing) and played a few rounds of spades.  Finally, the clouds cleared up and this is what we saw...

It was incredible!  One of the craziest things about this trip was that the landscape completely changed from one place to another even though each place we went was only an hour and a half apart.  We hit a few other scenic lookouts before starting on our hike.  We hiked a trail called the Navajo/Queen.  It was a combination of two hikes that were about 3 miles combined.  

The tower formations of rocky sandstone are called "hoodoos."  At one part of our hike, we got to a place where people had made their own hoodoos...it was fun, and tempting to knock them all over.  

A lot of times the hoodoos would look like funny faces in the rock.  We actually saw troll doll shaped hoodoos...Emily told us a story about how she wanted to be a troll doll for Halloween.  Signals must have been crossed when she told her mom because her mom dressed her as a model.  It must have been hard to convince people that she was a troll going door to door dressed in designer clothes and accessories.  Anyways, shout out to you Ems...and a Happy Halloween!

Finally, dinner at the Bryce Canyon Lodge...yum, it was nice to sit down to a fancier meal than the "unstoppable" chili we had two nights ago.  This was also where we celebrated Kolby's birthday!  A very successful day if you ask me.

Next, we hiked the Vermilion Cliffs.  We started our day an hour earlier than we expected (our guides were on Arizona time...we were on Utah time...they forgot to tell us that little detail).  When we asked them about it, they said they like that it feels like they are sleeping in.  Okay, so once we realized we were on Steve (our guide) time, we had some breakfast...probably some of the best pancakes I've ever eaten, along with bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, coffee, and orange juice!  We felt like royalty...then we realized this was one of the biggest meals we had had yet, and we were hiking at a restroomless area...yikes bikes! 

We took the longest, bumpiest ride I've ever taken, on which I reconsidered Steve's offer to sit in the front if I get carsick...too late!  I ended up being fine, but Tyler on the other hand...he had some issues.  I don't know if I've seen someone clutch a seatbelt as hard has he was.  He had too much orange juice at breakfast, and I wasn't sure he was going to make it.  We were both crying...I was crying because I was laughing so hard, he was crying for other reasons.  We finally made it to the place we would be exploring, and it was AWESOME!  Pictures do not do this place justice, but here they are anyways.

Throughout the entire place, the ground was made up of these little "fins."  They were so fragile, so we had to be really careful when walking around...the Germans that went on the hike with us must not have understood this because they clomped around all over the fins.

close up of the fins

Wild oregano!  It smelled good!

This rock was so cool.  The color change is very distinct here, and when you backed away from the rock, you could see the same line run along the ground!

After lunch, we made our way (same/worse bumpy drive) to a place called White Pocket.  Once again, only thirty minutes away and a completely different landscape.  We felt like we were on a different planet.  It was almost like we were hiking on white brains!  Steve did not disappoint us.  These places were so beautiful...definitely worth the nauseousness of the trip out there. 

The BRAINS!!

These are called "mockey marbles."  They are iron deposits in the rocks that had been eroded away.  When the rocks wear down, these iron deposits are all that are left.

Rock with "mockey marbles"

This is a picture of all of the rocks/pottery that we found...apparently, left over from the Indians

We ended the day with a true Texas Bar-B-Q dinner.  It was like eating a plate of meat, and then eating a sandwich!  Susan (Steve's wife) told us that if there was food left on the plate, she had done her job!  With full stomachs, we loaded up the car to head to our next hotel.

All in all...Bryce Canyon National Park and The Vermilion Cliffs = 2 thumbs way up! 

Total # of hikes = 3ish  Total # of miles = 6 (rough estimate)