Sunrise at Bryce Canyon and on to Capitol Reef, Glen Canyon and Natural Bridge

The hoodoos at Bryce Canyon are beautiful at sunrise and at sunset.  We had planned to see the sunrise on the previous day but due to an alarm malfunction we decided to wait.  It was worth the wait.  Sunrise point was crowded with photographers and others waiting in the dark.

We had a short ride from Bryce to Torrey and we took scenic byway Hwy. 12.  It was amazing.  We would be commenting about a cool view and were treated to even cooler views around every curve.  Believe me it is a visual overload.  Trying to take it all in is impossible.  Further along Hwy 12 we stopped off at Kodachrome Basin State Park.  We hiked to Grosvenor Arch but the sun was so high it was hard to get a good shot of it.

We rode by the limestone ledges of Powell's Point.  This point was named after the explorer John Wesley Powell who led expeditions in the late 1800's.  He came to this area because it was the last "blank spots on the map." 

We passed through a sliver of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The monument is made up of 1.9 million acres set aside to conserve the open land.  It is so massive that it has three seperate sections.  The Grand Staircase section was so named due to the geological "steps" that made it up.  It also has a large section of plateau and a third  section with many slot canyons.

We continued on to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  When the Colorado River was dammed in the 1960s it created a 200 mile long reservoir called Lake Powell.  We crossed Boulder Mountain at an altitude of over 9000 ft.  The view was magnificent. We headed on into Torrey for the night.

The next day, we picked up Hwy 24 for the short ride to Capitol Reef.  This road was also extremely scenic.  That is the problem with southern Utah.  It is laced with beautiful interesting roads.  It is known for its 100 mile long fold in the earth where part of the Earth's crust just up 2000 ft. above its base.  Along the Freemont river there are ancient pictographs and petroglyphs painted or carved into the sandstone by some of the area's early native inhabitants hundreds of years ago.  Also along the river is Fruita a settlement that grew up around fruit orchards.  They are known for their fresh hot apple pies.  We had to have one.  It was memorable.  It is difficult to really describe what we saw so just take a look at a few of the pics.

Michael Kaynard is a local photographer who lives in West Ashley.  His photos can be seen at http://kaynardphotography.webs.com.  He can be contacted at mkaynard@gmail.com or 843-412-2299.