Utah mountains and Canyons

This morning after a hotel breakfast, we left Springdale and Zion National park…a two hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. Google drive time was actually 2 hours short and the drive was 4 hours, however, we did make a few scenic stops as we traversed mountains, visited caves, took the (dirt road) scenic route…and stopped to fuel up! From hot rocks to mountain snow as we travelled from Cedar Park through the Dixie National Forest.

Over the mountain pass we stopped at several viewpoints to capture the valleys and mountains dotted with snow!

As we dropped over the top of the range in the valley the lakes were still frozen, and snow was bordering both sides of the roads…

First planned tourist stop was the mammoth caves…a free attraction…waving in and out of internet and google map updates our driver(Chuck) found himself reversing out of dirt roads and private property…and finally heading in the right direction…a 4 mile dirt, rutted track to our proposed destination..,

Sue climbed in and Tona and Chuck were the emergency rescue team (if needed)

First climb was a cave in this black hole… with a locked gate until next month leading to the bat breeding colony!

The second cave, and much smaller hole to climb in was about 2.5 foot high. I had to climb in on all fours…and snapped a couple of pics…

Just to prove I had been underground!

We then headed off…towards Bryce Canyon National Park….again taking a few detours and dirt roads… and entering the Red canyon area, diving through arches…

And surrounded by cliffs of red rocks…then on into Bryce Canyon….We decided to take the car to the first lookout point on the agenda …. Inspiration Point on the Canyon Rim Trail….now just warning you all, the next series of images may be a “you had to be there” scenario, but the views and heights were unbelievable that these are a mere snapshot of the pics I took!

Parking in the viewpoint car park…of course it was a climb up! With an unbarriered track edge….dropping off thousands of feet into the canyon. my stomach turned every time I got a little close to the edge…

Rock formations in yellow and red cascading into the floor of the canyon.

A handrail edge at a very strategic lookout point…where we were comfortable to take a selfie!

From the track climbing up to inspiration lookout, the panorama opening before our eyes.

This tree living on the edge, its roots barely holding onto the ground!

Quote: “Truth be told, Bryce isn’t a canyon. It’s a natural amphitheater carved into the eastern flank of the Paunsaugunt Plateau by millions of years of wind and water erosion” Unquote…

To me it looked like a giant volcano had erupted leaving the enormous circular hole filled with the most incredible rock formations..

Inspiration Point, outside the viewpoint area, the track fell horizontally down….

A panorama of the canyon…

And yours truly bravely clutching the outermost rail of the point…

Looking down to the Forest floor…if you look closely you can see a zigzagging walking trail to the bottom…and if we looked hard we could see the odd person down there…I didn’t envy their walk back out!

This viewpoint then continued with a rim walk to the next lookout Bryce Point…a 1.5 mile (3km) walk around the rim edge of the canyon. We decided to walk this and back to the car rather than driving the next area.

This part of the rim track fell away both sides…with quite a breeze whipping across…the stomach somersaulted a few times!

Another example of rim track edge – without any safety rails!

A view of the canyon looking further out to the snow capped mountains in the distance..

Finally reaching the Bryce point viewpoint ….and dizzying heights continued…

More vegetation on the edge…

The final rim leading to the platform..

Majestic views from the opposite side from where we started…

And…..More…. Ok that’s it for today, but honestly, if you are ever in this National Park area of Utah….Bryce Canyon National park is a must see!!

Instead of retracing our steps (on foot) we took the (free) shuttle back to our car and headed back to our place for the evening….nearing 4pm and all hungry

Ruby’s Inn, and everything else…one room ready the other not…we decided late lunch, early dinner, and a drink was much needed …we devoured a huge buffet selection and then settled in for the evening….much longer drive ahead tomorrow on the National Parks adventure!!!