Bryce Canyon, Wow

Zion from near the tunnel entrance

After leaving St George, we pointed the van toward Zion again. We drove through the park on the Mt Carmel highway, complete with switchbacks and an incredible tunnel through the rock.  The tunnel was narrow and dark, and ran just inside the rock wall, with portals for air and light spaced along most of it's length.  On the east side of the tunnel, we drove through a high plateau of exposed rock with very little vegetation.  It had a kind of moon-scape look to it.

To get to Bryce Canyon we had to drive through the Long Valley with lots of high desert scrub brush, and grasslands, a nice setting for cattle ranches.

Zion "moon-scape", east of the tunnel

On the way to Bryce Canyon we stopped at Red Canyon in the State Forest, to take some pictures. It was a good foretaste of the majestic land forms to come.  We stopped for some lunch at a Subway near the entrance.

An incredible view of the "Amphitheater" from Bryce Point

To view the unique rock formations of Bryce Canyon, you drive along an 8000' + plateau.  Along the eastern edge, there are many overlooks where you can view the rock formations that make this park so beautiful.  The rock formations are created by a variety of sandstone formations which have varying degrees of permeability   Surface and ground water moving over and through this geology has eroded the rock at various rates depending on the hardness of the rock creating a freaky yet beautiful landscape.  With an average of more than 200 days per year with freezing temperatures, the freeze/thaw cycle has created a very active agent for this erosion.  The arid climate also is another factor in the formation of this landscape, because when heavy rains do come, the run off the hard soil and create erosive flash floods

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon

The rock pillars found at Bryce are called Hoodoos.  Despite the sporadic, light rain showers, we really enjoyed the scenery.  Due to the altitude and cloud cover, it was a bit on the cool side that day.

After leaving Bryce Canyon, we took 12, 89 and 20 to Interstate 15, driving through the town of Panguitch along the way.  Along this route there was a lot of open grasslands in the valley, so we saw a lot of large ranches. 

As were heading north on 15, there were 2 test sections which had a speed limit of 80 mph.  The van was up to the challenge and we were flowing with traffic a few "degrees north" of the posted limit.  We made it to Heber City, UT quickly and safely, so I would vote for that speed limit.  Along the interstate, we saw large pockets of agricultural land, supported by irrigation using water from the surrounding mountains.  In between this farmland was dry desert land.

When we got to Provo, we headed east toward Heber City through the Deer Creek canyon.  The Utah state road signs have a the shape of a beehive in the background, much like the keystone here in PA.  Of course we needed to know why that is.  We consulted the internet for an answer and found that "Utahans relate the beehive symbol to industry and the pioneer virtues of thrift and perseverance", according to 50states.com site,