The Hoodoo that You Do

Utah is nuts. Well, in July.

Getting extremely tired of the 106 degree weather, we saddled northward(ish) from Zion to spend the day at Bryce Canyon. While still warm, losing at least ten to fifteen degrees made a fairly large difference, and we set out to enjoy our day at yet another ridiculous national park.

Bryce Canyon Hoodoos

Bryce Canyon is very deceptive. As you enter the park, you get no feel for the type of topography that lies just beyond some of the trees to the East where the canyon lip stands. Even until you walk right up to the lip, you really have no idea what is in store for you. The colors and the power of the earth is on display, and the pictures do not do it justice - such an otherworldly experience.

Still not tan. Weird.

 We decided to hook three different loops together to make for a nice 6 mile afternoon, and took in the Queen's Garden Loop, half of the Navajo Loop and the Peek-a-boo Loop. Without a guidebook or someone telling us what we were looking at, it was mostly a hike of staring at crazy formations and shades of orange that we were fairly certain all had names but didn't know. We once again quickly decided that a short backpacking trip on our next return should be in order, if only to see the entire park and find some more solitude.

Hoodoos on the Peek-a-Boo Loop

 The one thought that blossomed in our heads while hiking, though, was how much we wanted to see home again. We decided after getting up and out of the canyon that we would drive through the Escalante Staircase (a drive in itself that is worth going to the area for) and try to find a campsite at Capitol Reef National Park - which would get us in range for single day of driving the following day back to Fort Collins.

Arriving in Capitol Reef was a little eerie. The park itself has a major highway running through it's skinny (and elongated) middle, so there was no entrance station. As we rolled down to the single campsite, almost half the spots were still open, and all of the current residents were all super quiet and seemingly placated. There are all kinds of fruit orchards strafing the campgrounds, and the fact that this area was a Mormon settlement in the 1800's is easy to see due to the orchard size and order.

Capitol Reef Vista

Ten bucks got us a gigantic campsite with a flushing toilet - and without even seeing any of the park proper it made me want to stay a whole week. It was just so less busy and so much quieter than any of the other parks we had been to, it was the perfect antidote to feeling crushed by all of the RVs and cars we had forded to arrive.

In the morning we did a short drive around some of the park to grab some pictures and get a sense of the scenery before getting out of dodge and eventually eating lunch at Colorado National Monument. The CNM was our final stop of the trip, and also marked the 9th national park/monument/scenic area that we had gotten to see. All it took was ~6000 miles and a month!

Colorado National Monument - Independence Monument

We eventually got back to our driveway, exhausted but happy to be back to our beds, friends and kitty cat. All of the different sets are on the Flickr: Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Colorado National Monument. A final and summarizing group of pictures from the entire trip can be found on the Flickr right here.

Woof!