Beautiful Bryce National Park, Utah, USA
Recently I dug out a picture from our time spent in Utah at Bryce National Park. Oh my gosh did it remind me of how much I loved living in Utah! Chris and I lived in that red rock state for a year and a half. We were able to travel to so many national parks. I thought in this weeks post I would take a walk down memory lane to one of our many favorite parks out west…
Bryce National Park.
Located in the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah, Bryce Canyon spans over 2000 feet of elevation difference.
Named after Ebenezer Bryce, Bryce National Park was established in 1928.
Bryce National Park is not a “real” canyon. Water still plays an important role in it’s evolution, but in the form of ‘frost wedging.’ There are over 200 days a year when the temperatures go above and below freezing. The melting water during the day seeps into the fractures only to freeze at night then expands by 9%. The ice exerts a tremendous amount of force, between 2,000-20,000 pounds per square inch. Eventually this frost wedging shatters the pieces of rock apart.
Bryce also boasts some of the best air quality in the world. It is not uncommon to be able to see for over 100 miles plus.
World famous for its hoodoos, these spires are formed when ice and rainwater wear away the weak limestone that makes up the claron formation.
I remember feeling the cool reprieve looking up these tall ponderosa pines.
It is a harsh and arid landscape and it takes a lot of energy for both plants and animals to live. This juniper pine makes its own unique statue blending into the landscape.
There were so many interesting rock formations all around. I thought this formation looked like an angel and I made a card out of it for my mom one year.
I just loved looking over this landscape.
If you do get a chance to go to Bryce National Park, the area is home to over 100 different species of birds, dozens of mammals and over 1000 different plant species.
You might just get lucky and see this little chipmunk like we did on the side of the trail. Scurrying all around, leaving their little paw prints in the desert sand, these little guys were so cute to watch living in this impressive landscape. I cannot wait until we get a chance to revisit this unique park again. Thanks for being awesome Bryce National Park!
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If you go:
Unless you are planning to only visit one or two national parks out West, definitely buy a parks pass!
You cannot beat camping in national parks for $20, $30 for RV. Try to get there early. A lot of the sites are first come, first serve and you better believe they fill up fast.
Make sure you acquaint yourself with Leave No Trace camping skills and if you are looking for some good camping gear, don’t forget to check out this post, My Favorite Camping Gear.
Check out Bryce Canyon National Parks web page for lots of helpful info and start planning your amazing park adventure today!
Need a little more for planning?
The gear listed in this post is the same exact gear we use to travel the world or our back yard.
These same booking resources are the same exact ones we use to find deals and acquire points for more travel.
I will never recommend to get a credit card unless you are 100% solid to pay it off in full every month. If you will and are going to be making some big purchases, this Chase card is the same exact card we use and it offers great travel points and perks.
Finally, if you have not used AirBnB before, use this special link to sign up and get $40 off your first booking.
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Bryce Canyon is such a beautiful park! I was not familiar with ‘frost wedging’ and greatly appreciated that and all the other information of the area. Thank you.
Frost wedging – a whole other kind of water movement in the desert. It is a harsh landscape, that’s for sure. Glad you enjoyed. 🙂
What gorgeous photos! Makes me want to go visit Bryce Canyon. Glad you had a good trip down memory lane!
Thank you Donna!!! Oh man, any time I think about all the places we visited out west is a great trip down memory lane. I am just so thankful to have been able to experience both areas. They are so different, yet similar. But those National Parks out west, some of the best places to go on a car camping road trip!!!
I think it is cool to take a look back and see where one has been then look ahead to what is next
I am partial to the “angel ” pic but enjoyed so much a trip down “memory lane”
Lots of growth experience in those first “plunges”
mare
Oh man, there was a lot of growth in those first moves! I will never forgot how much we had loaded up our car the first time we moved out west. Gosh knows how we made it. But we did and were so thankful to spend lots of time in places like this!
This is when I started out and it would have been a great
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Nice post. I love all the pictures that show the stones looking like people. So pretty.