Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Southwest continued. . .

Ah, Bryce Canyon.











What an unbelievable, awe-inspiring, fantastic place! It felt like we were in a fantasy fairy land while hiking among all the rock formations, (called "hoo doos"). We found all kinds of strange shapes and beings in the rock formations. Dinosaurs, castles, kings and queens, women with beehive hairdo's and more. It was definitely a place that your imagination could get a work-out. The Queensland/Wallstreet trail took us down into the ampitheatre, through a forested area and up through a narrow cavern. In the forest we spotted a number of chipmunks and a lovely bright blue and black bird that guided us along the trail for a ways. We later found out that it was a Stellar's Jay. One lone evergreen grew in the warm, orange cavern of "Wall Street". Totally unbelievable. Our photos could never tell the real magnificence of this beautiful, jaw-dropping place. After a cold and windy day at Bryce Canyon, we headed a few miles up the road to the Historic town of Panguich, Utah. The town was about one week away from closing up for the winter season. We ate at an old 1950's era diner and found a room for the night at the Canyon Lodge, also of a similar era. The next morning when we left towards Arizona the temperature was 14 degrees! That is the coldest temperature either of us have ever been in!