Hiking with the (other) Huxters - in Bryce Canyon

I’m running out of superlatives.  There are only so many you know.  At some point I am going to have to start repeating myself – there is simply too much scenery here that requires far too many words like “awesome” and “amazing” to accurately describe it.

I was struck with this realization as I sat down to write about Bryce Canyon.  Let it suffice to say that it was so breathtaking, and so overwhelming (so bom-diggity?  Have I used that one yet?), that we are seriously considering naming our second male child Bryce*.

(*Understanding of course that: a) we haven’t quite got child number one out of the way yet, b) by putting this in writing I’ve basically guaranteed us a house full of girls, and c) if and when we get to boy number two we will have probably forgotten that we once thought Bryce was a pretty cool name. )

Still reading?  Good.  In that case I won’t push my luck with too much yappity yap and get right to the photos.  Here are a couple.

Who’s the old fogeys in the photo you ask?  Hey, be nice! That’s my folks!  Good ‘ol Mom and Dad Huxter.  They were in town for the week visiting us from Newfoundland - and since nobody ever really knows where Newfoundland is, we’ve included a map for you below…

Yes that IS a long way away.  Yes that IS really far north.  Yes it IS cold there.  No I did NOT grow up in an igloo.  No we did NOT have a polar bear as a pet!  (Oh stop - now you are just being silly... we had a pet moose of course, like most people.)

My folks pretty much rock.  Apologies to anyone who has lame parents, because mine are the bomb.  We had a hoot travelling around with them, hiking, sight-seeing, playing cards and (though you wouldn’t guess by looking at them) eating pie.  Lot’s of pie.

One little known (and totally awesome) fact about the state of Utah is that the people here apparently love pie.  There’s pie everywhere!   Apple, cherry, rhubarb, strawberry, chocolate, banana cream… you ask for it – they got it*.  (*Except pumpkin.  Much to my father’s dismay, nobody has pumpkin pie.  Nobody.)  Pull into any small town anywhere and you’ve got half a dozen choices for pie, each one advertising that they are the best in town.  One even claimed to be the “Worlds Best Pie”!  Can you believe it? The best in the whole world.  Including the moon.

(Editor’s note, as of press time, the International Pie Tribunal is still withholding their final ruling as to whether or not this small gas station in Rock Pile, Utah does in fact have the “best” pie in the history of the world. )

Ok, enough about pie.  Back to Bryce Canyon.  Here’s another photo.

Pea sixed brain can’t comprehend what you are looking at? Good.  So it’s not just me.  Maybe it was the elevation (the park sits at about 9000 ft) but staring at this view for a long time doesn’t make it easier to grasp, it makes it harder.

The story goes that this enormous canyon filled with thousands and thousands of these “hoodoos” (a.k.a. freaky shaped spires of multicolored sandstone) was formed by some freak accident of water eroding through the softer lower rock layers leaving the harder rock layers perched at the top…but who cares?  They are awesome.  Anyone who comes here, and doesn’t immediately believe in some greater being who wants to show us how awesome he is (especially at building sand castles) has got rocks in their head.

We drove the 18 mile “scenic drive” (understatement of the century) around the rim of the canyon, stopping at a dozen or more view points, each one more baffling than the last.  Then we took a short 3 mile hike down into the canyon through the hoodoos.  They look even crazier up close.

Suffice to say that if any of you get a chance to make it out here we are taking you to Bryce Canyon. It is not an optional part of the itinerary.  Can’t make it until winter?  No problem!  Imagine how neat this will look with snow on it!  We’d probably spend every weekend for the next 6 months backpacking here, but at 9000 ft it is quite chilly in the evenings so we are limited to day hikes. With the snow coming soon even those will get more and more difficult as the weeks go by.   Booooo!

Up next… Miscellaneous photos!  (More interesting than it sounds. Fine, I’ll work on a better title…)