Bryce Canyon National Park

Few places that I have visited managed to exceed my expectations, whatever those expectations might have been.  From the very first time I saw photographs of Bryce Canyon National Park, I thought the place both odd and gorgeous.  Yesterday, before launching our final drive home from Utah, four of us drove into Bryce Canyon National Park.

I was genuinely awestruck, as were my companions.  Colleen purposely left her camera in the car at the first scenic overlook—which required a short hike up through some rather plain-looking alpine landscape to reach the 8000-foot rim—expecting another stone canyon or perhaps another river valley engraved by a twisting stream.  Once she reached the first railing and peered down into the vice upon vice of hoodoos and the amphitheaters descending into more amphitheaters, Colleen drew in a breath and then asked for the keys to the car so she could run back to get her camera.

The first light of morning struck inside the amphitheaters just as we arrived.  Some of the hoodoos seemed to glow with fluorescence and the sun shuffled through clouds as it continued to draw higher and reach deeper into the formations of colorful stone.  The light and shadows continually changed, seeming to electrify and switch on and off various features inside the park as we stood at the rim watching.

Posted are a few photographs that will never do justice to what we actually witnessed in the new morning.

--Mitchell Hegman