Bryce Canyon National Park

On the road again, a night stop at Fillmore and another in Panguich, heading for Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon is located in south-western Utah.

Despite its name, it is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheatre created by erosion.

The red/orange and white colours of the rocks provide spectacular views for visitors, the rim road varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level.

The Bryce area was settled by Morman pioneers in the 1850s and named after Ebenezer Bryce a Scottish immigrant, the area covers 35,835 acres.

Archaeological surveys show that people have lived in the area for at least 10,000 years, the two most recent were the Anasazi followed by the Paiute Indians.

On my first day I set off to drive the remarkable 18 miles of twisty road leading to Rainbow Point, the end of the road and a height of 9105 feet. Stopping regularly to look in wonder at thousands of pink fingers sticking up, only photographs can show the beauty.

This was a surprise in more ways than one, firstly I expected a canyon where you drive along looking up, this was a canyon where you drive along looking down.

Although it is now the middle of October, the weather is sunny and warm with a lovely blue sky.

The RV site at Bryce Canyon was great, it was big but all trees with trailers and motor homes all tucked away out of sight of each other. The entrance to the RV Park was by way of Ruby’s Inn, a hotel/restaurant/shop/gas station/bike hire/helicopter booking office for flights over this amazing canyon, also eating out again, wonderful.

The next morning I set out to see the parts I had not seen the day before, it was dull and cloudy, not what I am now used to, anyway, I set forth along the ridge road, within half an hour it started to snow quite heavily, apart from not seeing the views, I did not know how my bus would handle conditions like that, furthermore I did not know where I could get turned around, I am up on a ridge, no car parks, no side streets or wide open spaces here, anyway I managed and tit toed back on snow covered roads to my cosy little space, I did not mention, Bryce Canyon stands at a height of 9115 feet, no wonder I had snow.

I enjoyed my visit to Bryce Canyon, I have never seen anything like it before.