On Saturday morning we drove over to East Zion Canyon. You pass through a 1.1 mile long tunnel and when you exit the tunnel, the Park looks completely different. Instead of shear sandstone cliffs a couple of thousand feet high all around you, there are sandstone mounds several hundred to several thousand feet high. These mounds are much lighter in color and much more gradual in slope. Many of them have vertical and horizontal cracks which form checkerboard patterns visible on the surface of the rock and are referred to as checkerboard mesa. The first picture below is typical of what the terrain looks like on the west side of the tunnel, the next several pictures are typical of what the terrain looks like on the east side of the tunnel.
I climbed up a ways and took a few pictures from my elevated position.
The picture below is a typical checkerboard mesa.
In the center of the following picture you can see the early stages of an arch being formed.
The next three pictures are from Red Canyon which is between Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. It is easy to see why it is named Red Canyon.
We entered Bryce Canyon mid-afternoon and it was somewhat overcast and rained a little off and on. We managed to get a few nice pictures though. While Zion Canyon is viewed from the canyon floor, Bryce Canyon is viewed mostly from the rim except for some points where you can hike down into the canyon if you are so inclined, we aren't.
The next three pictures were taken at an area called Sunset Point. It was late in the day and somewhat overcast so the lighting is a little different.
On Sunday we went to the north rim of Grand Canyon. Most people are familiar with the sights of the south rim of Grand Canyon, but are surprised at the difference in the appearance of the terrain at the north rim, it is much greener and the canyon doesn't seem to be near as expansive as it does from the south rim. It was overcast and rained a little so the color isn't as good as it could be in be better light.
In the sunroom at the Grand Canyon Lodge at the north rim, there is a bronze statue of a burro, a tribute to a particular burro named Bright Angel but generally referred to as Brighty, who spent about thirty years transporting water from a spring in the canyon to the lodge in the late 1800's and the 1900's. He also gave rides to children who were always delighted. I got Jane to pose with Brighty for this picture.
