Bryce Canyon NP

This quilt in the Bryce Canyon lodge pretty well sums up this long-planned vacation. Except for Monument Valley and Grand Staircase-Escalante (which we only saw from a distance), we are spending time in each of these Grand Circle national parks.

This display in the Bryce Canyon NP lodge, shows how many layers of sedimentary rock are on display from Bryce all the way to the Grand Canyon’s depths.

The bright spires of Bryce Canyon seem to go on forever. But this pink layer of rock is the top of the “Grand Staircase” of sedimentary rock layers that descend all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

This hoodoo near the Natural Bridge in Bryce Canyon looks like it could serve as a torch for the next Olympic Games.

I celebrated my 65th birthday with Elaine by viewing Bryce Canyon’s spectacles, such as the Natural Bridge.

The iconic view of Bryce Canyon’s technicolor landscape is hoodoos like these viewed from Bryce Point.

Driving into Bryce Canyon National Park on the morning of my 65th birthday, we spied these hoodoos glowing in the sunrise light. At this hour, they say you can’t take a bad photo at Bryce!

The same bright colors seen in the earth of southern Utah can also be found in its sky on a fall evening.

The distinctive geological feature of Bryce Canyon is the thousands of bright pink and white vertical “hoodoo” spires. These are ones on the east side of the park near the waterfall.

Our first hike in Bryce Canyon was near our campground east of the park. This waterfall was created by Mormon pioneers who dug a several-mile long ditch to bring water to the Tropic valley in the 1890s.