Bryce Canyon

In the morning we had a wonderful breakfast and drove straight to the backdoor of the Bryce Canyon NP to avoid the tourist groups (which was another great hint from our hosts!). We parked our car at the end of the dirt road and started to walk.

It was a great walk, early in the morning, no people, blue sky and the first stone formations of Bryce Canyon. After  1,8 miles until we arrived at the trailhead to the Peekaboo Trail and Navajo trail. Here you can see the map and our route (in Red):

We decided to follow the first one, which is a wonderful roundtrip to the Bryce view point and back, which is rated as strenuous (anstrengend), which is was, as we added the trip to Tropic (2x 1,8mi), the roundtrip (3mi) and the trip to the view point (2x 1,1mi), et voila = 8,8mi.


The Canyon itself is mind boggling and one of the best experiences, I have ever made. So here are some impressions from early morning:

Adrian and Ole were also amazed about it!

On contrary to the Grand Canyon, the Bryce Canyon has no river, meaning the formations have been and will be shaped be erosion until today!

"The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park formed in the Claron Formation, limestone deposited

in an ancient lake system 30-50 million years ago. With uplift of the Colorado

Plateau, a series of parallel fractures cut across the Claron Formation. It is along these fractures that the processes of weathering and erosion occur. The principle form of weathering is a process known as freeze-thaw. Water gets into
small cracks and freezes at night. The expansion of the freezing water widens the crack.

The following day, the ice melts and water seeps further into the crack and the process begins again. There are approximately 200 days of freeze-thaw at Bryce Canyon each year, and the process goes mostly unobserved. In summer,
monsoonal rains remove the products of weathering during flash-flooding
events. Over the millennia, the fantastically-shaped fins and hoodoos have
formed." (Source : Bryce Canyon NP Service).

This is a Hoodoo.

It was a really wonderful hike despite the heat. In the afternoon we got a little bit tired and went back to the trailhead, where Shelly and Ole made the Heldenpose (Hero posing).