We awoke to some really pretty snowfall. Big heavy snowflakes covered the car quickly but never accumulated on the roads allowing us to venture back into Bryce Canyon National Park, UT, to see it in a different light. There were certainly a lot fewer people milling around the park.
The red in the hoodoos was very nicely accentuated by the white of the fresh snow. It made for a wonderful photo op (as long as you could keep the camera dry!)
The lodge and all of its associated buildings had a unique wavy roofing style which the snow highlighted.
Inside the lodge, the roaring fire was very inviting and just a bit difficult to leave. The nice lady at the reservations desk practically insisted on taking our picture - I think she just wanted something to do. I believe she did a fine job given here subject material.
The ranger had said the town of Tropic was a veritable hot spot compared to the park and that seemed like a good idea for today. Leaving the park we thought it would be good to first revisit Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest It was only a few miles out of the way and the skies looked promising. When we arrived, however, the snow had caught up with us.
Kate claimed her place as "King of the Hill"
Heading down from the plateau this beautifully weathered tree demanded our attention. While we were there another man stopped for pictures. He said the tree has looked exactly the same for as long as he could remember. He reckoned that was more than sixty years.
We saw the same guy in the valley where we stopped to hike to Mossy Cave. He was in the Ranger program for two summers during college and really enjoyed it, but after leaving the Air Force he chose a career as a pilot instead of the NPS. As much as I like the parks, I suspect I would have done the same.
As I snapped the picture below, part of the formation suddenly leaped out at me.
It was Mr. Peabody! I never did see Sherman.
In the tiny town of Tropic, we had a really nice lunch at Clarke's Restaurant. They had really good French fries! We explored the town looking for the lower entrance to the Bryce Canyon trails, but never found it. When the clouds cleared enough we did find beautiful vistas of the snow-covered Aquarius Plateau far to the east.
An old wooden fence post always makes a good subject for a landscape, especially when there is some nice cloud drama. Of course, when you see a herd of deer it means a quick stop and some more pictures.
Later that night (at 8:00), there was a Ranger talk about the night skies in Bryce. The cloud cover never gave the slightest indication of clearing, so observing was out, but the Ranger did his talk anyway. There was a pretty sizable crowd - maybe 20-30 people. The Ranger said they have two 16-inch scopes they use for public observing. I was very sad to have missed that!
A photo (unsigned) of what we would be missing due to clouds was hanging in the auditorium.
On the drive back to Ruby's Inn RV Park, just outside of Bryce Canyon there were so many deer we lost count! It made the drive home longer and added some excitement to help keep me awake - it was after my bedtime after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment