This is the fifth part of our first RV trip to Utah Mighty five National parks loop. Here are the links to the previous post(Capitol Reef National Park) and the next post(Zion National park)
April 7, 2022:
On our way to Bryce Canyon City, we saw small towns and homesteaders living off of ranches. Just outskirts of the National Park are the Ruby’s Inn RV Park and Campground and a huge store where we parked, had lunch and took shuttle to the park. Shuttle system is free, runs April-Oct and can be tracked at brycecanyonshuttle.com. We got down at the Bryce Point which offers spectacular view of hoodoos, then reboarded to visit Inspiration point. The upper and lower inspiration points the most iconic and popular views of the scenic Bryce Amphitheater.
Hoodoos don’t grow like trees but are eroded out of the sandstone cliffs where narrow walls called fins form in step 1. Frost-wedging enlarges cracks in the fins, creating holes or windows in step 2. As windows grow, their tops eventually collapse leaving a column and rain further dissolves and sculpts these limestone pillars into bulbous spires called hoodoos in final step. The delicate climatic balance between snow and rain ensures that the new hoodoos will emerge while others become reduced to lumps of clay. We stayed the night at Ruby’s campground and enjoyed the showers.
April 8, 2022:
We drove the RV inside the park, parked at the Visitor center and took the shuttle to explore the park. As I strolled along the easiest and the paved portion of the Rim Trail from Sunset to Sunrise points with my DD2, the others explored the most popular Queen’s Garden/Navajo Combination Loop, a 2.9-mile hike below the rim in between hoodoos from Sunset to Sunrise points (Clockwise direction recommended).
As we waited for them to return, I explored the many elaborate exhibits in the Visitor center about prairie dog colonies, Hoodoos around the world (one we visited was Cappadocia Chimneys in Turkey), Space and Stars. We also did shop for memorabilia and started driving to Zion National Park.
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