June 18th Bryce Canyon

June 18th Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon! How beautiful! Bryce is a canyon full of “hoodoos,” which are huge columns of rock that are formed by water erosion. In this canyon, the colors are a brilliant orangey-red, white with a tint of purple. The colors are formed by reactions with the water (white is limestone and purple is magnesium). There is not a bad picture in the place. There are a lot of trails to go on, some more intense than others. I have never been around so many foreigners in my life. About half of the people on the trails were speaking a different language. We loved it. The trail that Aaron and I went on was the queen’s garden trail that led into the peek-a-boo loop trail. Talk about intense hiking. The queen’s trail wasn’t bad at all. Most people on that trail were families with kids and older folks. There were a lot of chipmunks and small prairie dogs on the trail. The peek-a-boo loop trail was either straight up, straight down or a switchback trail which definitely kills your ankles and knees. Every turn on the trail looked so different than the rest and Aaron got a lot of pictures. We would pass people on horses and I was so envious because all I wanted to do was to sit down and not walk anymore. Eight hours later, we were finally done with our hike! In the guidelines to back country hiking, it is suggested that each person carry a gallon of water each because you need it. The day of our hike, we both drank our entire gallon of water and only had to pee once in 32 hours!

The wildlife out here is mostly the same as “up north.” Deer, squirrels, chipmunks, hawks and lizards. This night after our long day, we were driving to our tent and saw two baby foxes playing in a hole. They were very cute and didn’t know to be afraid of humans yet. I hope to not ever see snakes but I know they are out there. Well, we are off to Zion national park next and I am so excited to see it because Aaron has so many stories of this place. We are planning to go on “the narrows” river trail and “angel’s landing” hike. More tomorrow.