| Started: | Green River, Utah, 7:30am (Mountain time) |
| Reached: | Mount Carmel Junction, Utah, 6:00pm (Mountain time) |
| Miles: | 342 (2949 cumulative) |
| Route: | Utah - Salina, Panguitch, Bryce Canyon National Park |
| Highways: | I70, US89 |
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Soon after we left Green River, the road started climbing the mountains. The steep climb again slowed down the car to 50 mph. Initially we could see snow-peaks in the distance. Later the snow covered slopes were right next to the road. There was salt on the road to prevent icy conditions. The car got coated with the red soil yesterday and today we had a coat of salt! We went through a mountain pass at about 8000 ft altitude. The road then went downhill till Salina.
After Salina, we took US89 to Panguitch. The road was very winding as it went through a number of small villages. The mountains here were greener than the other places in Utah, but also had snow on the summits. US89 is along the Sevier river, which has light green colored water. We could see some farms with cows grazing peacefully. At a couple of places, we even saw a "cow-crossing" sign.
As we neared Bryce canyon National Park, we again entered the
red-soil country. The
road passes through "Red Canyon" in Dixie National forest before entering
Bryce Canyon. The name suits!
As we entered Bryce Canyon National Park, the road was lined
with conifers: spruce,
fir, and pine. We were seeing so many trees after a really long time!
Between the thick forest of conifers we could see snow on the slope next
to the road. The lowest point in Bryce Canyon is at 6600 ft altitude!
We took the scenic road in the park, and went right till the end. There we
did a small hike along Bristlecone trail. The views were amazing! We saw
lots of hoodoos. Hoodoos are red-yellow pillars of rock that are standing
some 100 ft above the red soil. One such hoodoo can be seen in the
photo on the left (Click for a larger image).
There was some snow on Bristlecone trail, but not a whole lot.
As we came back to the visitor's center, we took a detour to
Bryce Point. From here,
the valley has a whole amphitheater of hoodoos, seen in the photo on
the right (Click for a larger image). Its like a huge army of
hoodoos waiting for orders in the valley below.
We parked at Sunset point, and took the rim trail to Sunrise point. It was a flat and easy trail along the canyon rim. From there, we descended to Queen's Garden via Queen's trail, walked through the hoodoos and came back up via Navajo trail. As the trail descended to the hoodoos, we could see them more closely. This place is a giant ant-hill! The color of the rocks matches, too.
The part of Navajo trail we took was through a number of switchbacks. It went through some really narrow canyons and had steep ascents. A section of the trail is shown in the image on the left (Click for a larger image). Ebenezer Bryce, who first managed the park and had a herd of cows, described this place as "a hell of a place to lose a cow". This is not an overstatement!