Canyon Impressions

In an effort to catch up in the blogging world and prevent repetition I'm going to discuss all the canyoning we've done in one long post.  These canyons include 1.  Grand Canyon 2. Monument Valley 3. Natural Bridges 4. Canyonlands 5. Arches 6. Bryce and 7. Zion.  All of these are either national parks or national monuments.

After leaving Hopi Mission School we headed West, to the Grand Canyon.  We almost decided to skip Grand Canyon seeing as how it really wasn't on our way anywhere, and after all, it must be hyped up, right?  Wrong!!! It's called the Grand Canyon for a reason.  It was truly breathtaking in it's immensity.  The geology was fascinating and the views panoramic.  We stayed 3 nights.  We did one long hike, down to Skeleton point.  It was 6 miles round-trip, with a total elevation change of 2000 feet.  We were tired by the time we got back to the rim! The girls both said they'd do it again though. 

From the Grand Canyon we made our way North East towards Moab and Arches National Park.  On the way there we drove through monument valley.  Talk about an alien looking environment!  You'd have a flat plain, then bloob, there's a pedestal of stone.  We didn't get any pictures but I'd like to drive through again.  We spent a couple of nights at Bluff, Utah and day tripped to Natural Bridges National Monument.  We did a relatively short hike down into the canyon to find these big bridges carved out of limestone.  This hike had some ladders and steep areas which the girls loved.

Arches National Park is one of the front-runners in my list of favorites so far.  The limestone is layered on top on an unstable salt layer (the Paradox layer) that has allowed the limestone to tilt and fracture into fins.  These fins erode and form into arches.  We did a ranger-led tour through an area called the Fiery Furnace which was really cool!  This is definitely a place I'd like to come back to.

Next on the list was Bryce National Park.  We'd heard lot's of great things about Bryce and were looking forward to our visit.  The rock formations are called Hoodoo's and there are a lot of them.  The weather while were there was cold!  Sub freezing temps at night.  The first day was 50ish when we started a short hike, and 40's when we were done, as well as being very windy.  The next day was better.  We did a 6 mile hike in the hoodoos, including a 1400 ft elevation change.  It was good, but we found that the hike was not particularly exciting.  The scenery became predictable.  But I'm still glad we went.

Zion Nation Park was the last stop in Utah.  I loved Zion!  We were able to get reservations in the park with hookups.  It was really nice to be in the park and not have to commute in.  The downside was that the campground was infested with tent caterpillars  which freaked Erin out.  We did a great hike called Angels landing.  The last half mile was up a narrow, steep trail.  At times you had to use the chains provided to help you up.  The narrowest part of the trail was about 6 feet to the 1200 foot drop on either side.   The girls did great!  We did a couple of short hikes the next day since all of us had sore legs!

To see pictures check out my flickr page!