I’m coming to you from Bryce Canyon National Park at 6:45 mountain time. You may be thinking to yourself, hmm…I wonder why they quit so early this evening? We’re trying a different strategy tonight. We did laundry in Cedar City, Utah this morning, ambled to Cedar Break National Monument, listened to a ranger talk about how Cedar Break (and most of the rest of the canyon area) was formed, worked our way to Bryce and found lodging, and then did a little exploring. We are close enough to the park to go back for sunset. Currently, we are resting comfortably in our motel room. We would like to be able to return to the motel tonight right after sunset and go to bed—blog written, pictures (minus sunset) downloaded—all this so that we can see sunrise at Bryce (which by the way, is at 6:10 a.m.). Today is really only partially over, but I’ll give you what we’ve seen so far. Hoodoos. I wouldn’t tell you what hoodoos were last post, but I guess I’ll give in. Hoodoos are these tall towers that are formed by erosion—chemical and physical. Apparently, there was a lake in this region that was as big as Lake Erie. The lake compressed the ground (made from limestone) underneath it. The lake (I think from earthquake activity—there’s a fault line around here somewhere) drained, then the earth (from tectonic plate movement) was pushed up. From there, erosion did its job—these towers and arches were formed. The colors (red, orange, pink, purple) come from iron oxide (rust) and manganese.
I know this description is a little (but really, not much) more scientific than usual, but I just kept asking myself—how did these happen? The colors are amazing. I can’t wait to see them at sunset and sunrise. Tomorrow, we’re going to hike to the bottom of the canyon—while I’m looking forward to the sights, I’m not looking forward to the walk back up to the top!
Friday evening update:
The picture that leads this post is the moon on Friday night. We went for sunset, (which was cool) but really enjoyed the moon. By the time we left sunset point, the moon was bright enough to light our path.
I’m coming to you from 
4 comments:
That is a pretty fun word to say - hoodoos! And they are fabulous!
So you need a pen name? I'd let you borrow my last name... it has lots of really nice things that it rhymes with!
Are you on target to get home by next Weekend?
Those hoodoo things are crazy...never "hoid" of them...DT
@ tt:
Hoodoo, hoodoo, hoodoo! We stood at a sign that explained them, and like no other, when people came to that sign, they would say the word. You could tell that for some of them it was an aha!--oh, so that's what they're called. For others, it was just fun to say the word.
@ DT:
They are crazy. Hey, the title of that post (with its Seinfeld reference to "Everybody likes to say salsa) was just for you!
@ tt (again):
We plan to be home by next weekend, yes.
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