I can't take my eyes off those fabulous hoodoos!

Evening, Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here again and once again from amazing Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. It's night two of two here at North Campground and what an amazing day it's been.

Before I talk about what we saw today, it's time I note a couple of milestones. It is one month to the day since we started our adventure. Yep, we left on April 22 and today is May 22. Although you could get from Vero Beach to here at Bryce in 2,372 miles and 35 hours. We've been way less efficient and way more leisurely since we've taken a month and driven over 4,000 miles now. This is also the farthest from home we will be on this trip. Tomorrow we head east, although not by much, and begin closing the distance to Florida. It will take us another 20 days more or less and about 3,000 miles to get there, but the return starts tomorrow.

Enough about travel statistics, let's talk about travel destinations. Last night was by far the coldest night we have ever spent in the Cliche'. It was 27 degrees according to our thermometer… outside of course. Here inside we were snug and warm at 63 with the gas furnace and blower coming on about every 15 minutes all night long to keep it that way. No dogs were frozen, or even harmed at all, in the making of this scenic stop. There was a report that little Romeo the Puggle who slept under the covers all night may have felt ill effects from the bean and cheese quesadillas we made for lunch yesterday, but I slept through that and he seemed fine this morning. Fortunately, the Cliche' is lined with stainless steel inside so she showed no ill effects either. Mrs. C' is still not talking to me, however.

I awoke about 5:30 AM thinking it was time to head out and explore the park at what should be its most beautiful time of day. How did I conclude this was a sunrise park and not a sunset park, you ask? Well, Bryce Canyon is an unusual geologic feature. It is not a canyon shaped like a fern and created by many streams flowing into a big river like the Grand Canyon. It is not a long narrow chasm like Zion Canyon. It is essentially a place where a high piece of land – the Colorado Plateau – is collapsing and eroding away in something like a north/south line. The low land is to the east and the high ground to the west. So, as the sun rises in the east it first illuminates the cliff face and its many pockets and details. The portions of the “canyon” that you can visit by car form a series of interesting coves and points along about 15 miles of that collapsing plateau. These coves range from the size of an NFL stadium to a mile or more across from point to point. Each one is a bit different from the next. The variety of geological detail here is staggering. The most unusual and spectacular features are the “hoodoos”. This may have been the inspiration for Paul Simon's “Love me like a rock” in which he sings “When I was a little boy / And the Devil would call my name / I'd say "now hoodoo … / Hoodoo you think you're fooling?" ". That's a theory, anyway. Ok, I confess, I made that up but only because that song has been stuck in my head all day today and it's certainly because of the fact that he's the only singer I know who said “hoodoo”.

So, what is a hoodoo you ask? Let me show you a detail of just a few of them so you know what a hoodoo looks like:

OK? Hoodoos are stone pillars that form as the sandstone erodes along the collapsing cliff face. In this particular spot, the combination of stone hardness, rainfall amounts, chemical reactions between stone and rain, etc. produce a three step process where the eroding stone forms parallel ridges that emerge from the top of the cliff as it recedes and are perpendicular to the cliff edge. In other words, the ridges run more or less east and west while the cliff edges run mostly north and south. As the ridges themselves erode they of course become shorter, hence they form ramps from the valley floor several hundred or even thousand feet down and rise to the cliff edge. Here comes the unique part: The ridges do not erode uniformly, for reasons known only to geologists (ok, they do share their knowledge, I just didn't understand it well enough to pass it on to you) the erosion here produces relatively uniform towers rather than continuous ridges. If you read this blog often you probably know that I am the world's leading abuser of ellipses ( the three periods “...” ). I think hoodoos are God's representation of ellipses in stone… so there. Except God being God, he isn't limited to three. Here is a pic I took this morning as the sun rose (yes, I froze my Florida ellipses off to share this with you… you're welcome) at Inspiration Point:

When I got back and told Mrs. C' that I think I'll never get tired of staring at hoodoos in the sunrise she said “Aren't you a little old for that.”

As the day went on we traveled the park from one end to the other stopping at various “points” and “vistas” and “overlooks” and such. I'll share the pics with you without comment because, frankly, I don't think they need any. This park is the single most photogenic landscape I have ever seen. I have not done it justice, but I promise I've done the best my Canon and I can do to share it with those of you who have not yet been here.

So tomorrow it's on to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah for three nights. I'm glad that at some point they started using descriptive names. I couldn't remember why we were coming to “Bryce” until we got here yesterday… “Oh, we are going to check out some hoodoos!”. However at Arches we are going to see… wait for it… stone arches! Come back then and we'll let you know what we find in Moab and show you some picks of arches… that is, if I can stop staring at the hoodoos.

P.S.: If you have not visited our Flickr page, now is the time to do it. Especially if you have a device with a high res display (for me, my iPad with the Retina display shows the color and detail best… you may have a different favorite). It's at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131457232@N02/

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