Bryce Canyon: "Hell of a place to lose a cow"-Ebeneezer Bryce

We saw all we could of Zion and the next stop was Bryce Canyon. We arrived a little after five and stayed in a campsite that was on public land; far away from the rangers. We went into town to grab some supplies and it seemed like the only thing in town was Ruby’s. Ruby’s is the only thing in town and they know it. The prices they had were outrageous. Two nights in Bryce was good enough for me.

The next morning we had a late start and didn’t get to Bryce until about noon. I was ready to go hiking on some small trails and enjoy them while the others went on a 5.1 mile hike but as soon as we hit the visitor center, a bunch of them started to watch an informative movie in the auditorium. So while that was taking place I found a Stellar’s Jay and took some photos of it. I made my way into the “museum” which was more or less for kids with a little more information for adults. Needless to say, I wasn’t amused with Bryce’s visitor center nor the time line that we were on.

The movie ended and we made our way to the rim of the canyon. Angry and upset about the whole thing, for some reason, I was being a sour puss. I wasn’t afraid to apologize for my attitude for the hike. I don’t know what had me so upset to the point where I let it out but it wasn’t pretty. The crew tried to cheer me up but I really didn’t want to hang with them. It seems like 10 days together, night and day, was just a little too much for me. I needed some time to just be alone.

I followed them on the hike and eventually passed them. When I did pass, I ended up walking with a French family for 10 minutes before finding a part of the trail to pass them on. I was on my own looking into canyons and taking it all in or at least as much as I could in my state of mind. The canyon was filled with pillars and columns of rocks of similar shapes and sizes with some odd balls here and there.

From photo’s I’ve seen to their titles, in my opinion, Bryce has been summed up by other photographers as a place of castle towers and perhaps cathedrals. Some of the names by the park are similar, but one that stuck out was the Sunken Ship. It’s a mountain/butte/hill/cliff that reminds me of what the Titanic may have looked like during the initial sinking or even a large barge ship with the bow pointing up at a forty-five degree angle.

Bryce for me was a panorama heaven. There were so many open views where you could see for miles. We have been out of Bryce for two days and I still think you might be able to see the Gus Bus from the rim with a high powered scope. I took an amazing panorama that made me say “Wow” when I was done making my edits on it. I showed Brad and John who both agreed that it was one of the best I have taken.

This photo, still nameless, shows nice warm colors in the foreground with some cool white colors in the background. I really don’t like following trends and don’t want to name it something of a castle or cathedral but maybe something along the lines of chess. Some titles that are running through my mind are The Queens Army, Overrun of the Bishops, Hell of a place to lose a cow; the last one is a quote from Ebenezer Bryce when he was asked to describe the beauty of the land.

With less than a mile to go, I found my serenity and was okay with all that happened and all that was going to happen. I was on vacation and had to find that place in mind that we don’t need to be in a rush, we don’t all have to do the same hike and we’re free to do what we want, when we want. That feeling is priceless. I came up a junction where it was 0.60 miles or 0.70 miles to the rim. I chose the 0.70 thinking that it may be less of an incline. As I walked up to it, I waited several moments for some South Americans to take a picture. They looked at me and said with a  straight face, “This pathway is closed”. Not getting their sarcasm, I turned around and they yelled at me to come back and explained that it was closed so they could take their pictures. We laughed and I continued my way to Two Bridges.

Two Bridges referred to two arches one above the other. The pathway was about 10 feet of the trail before it said closed beyond the sign. I took some pictures and once again I surprised myself when I looked at the pictures on the computer. They’re not great, but the color I captured was quite stunning in one photo. Some of the crew came up as I left yelling, “Two Bridges!”. As I passed, I responded with, “If you hurry now, they’re throwing in another for free…” to which I was told, “MacK’s back!”

I continued up a familiar switchback on my own. The switchback was paved with longer ramps then that of Zion. The walls separating the switchbacks were made of brick with the same color of the stone around. Switchbacks out here in the west remind me of the street in San Francisco if that gives you an idea of how steep it can really get.

Once again at the top of the canyon, I released the panorama beast and clicked away. The South Americans came into my view and I told them the path was closed and they had to go back down. They got my sense of humor and continued to walk in my camera’s view. They looked like they were having fun and I was in my element; all was good. There was a bobcat of some sort along the path, and one of them got into it and pretended to drive it, I found it humorous.

We hiked over three miles in Bryce and called it quits for the park. We went to Ruby’s because that’s the only place around within reasonable distance to grab food. After that we went back to our campsite to find all our stuff still there and started to collect wood for an epic fire. The night before, Craig and Sarah stayed at our camp while the rest of us ran to town. Upon coming back, the two of them found hundreds of pinecones to start the fire off. The size of our fire ring was about 12 feet in diameter. It was more or less a bonfire. Back to the present, we needed an epic fire. We started to collect fallen down trees and enough wood to last us an hour or two if we did the same size fire as previous. While others collected pinecones, I was making art. I took two trees and got them to stand up. I took broken tree limbs and placed them on what limbs were left on the two trees. When all said and done I was quite impressed of my artsy side and so were others. Then when I thought I was done, artist know what I mean, pinecones kept coming in. I placed a few here and there on the art and then we built a pinecone trunk around the two trees. We all stood in a circle and passed off a blowtorch type device as we each lit part of the pinecones. Within minutes the bottom of the trees were engulfed in flames and after 13 minutes, the trees had fallen. From there, the campfire was kept small to make sure the wood would last. The night ended with me and John singing any songs we could remember the lyrics to. Some others would chime in, others, like Brad, would record. I’ll have to find some blackmail to counter the recording so it doesn’t make it to the internet.

Two Bridges

The Switchbacks

Hell of a place to lose a cow