Grand Canyon to Zion

Grand Canyon was a great place to visit but it was time to move north to continue my journey home. Before I made it to Zion, I did a quick stop at Bryce National Park and was so impressed by the landscape. This landscape started forming over 50 million years ago where an inland sea deposited sediment, retreated and then deposited again and continued for millions of years.  This is how the various layers in the rocks were created. Eventually, the sea retreated and the wind and water took over. In fact, water plays a huge role in the forming of this canyon. During the summer monsoons, it can rain a couple of inches in a short time span, couple this with water and snow getting into the crevasses, freezing (Causing the expansion of the water) thus causing cracking in the rock formations.

I only had about four hours from the time I arrived until sunset and was not able to stay another day, so it was a really quick trip. These trips are nice to get a flavor for a return trip back and I would definitely take a day to hike down into the canyon.

I can only imagine how beautiful it would be down there especially when trees grow between the hoodoo rock spires, just have to be careful about timing and using sunlight. Could get cold and dark down there pretty quick.

The location I was at, at Sunrise Point, had a tree I’ve seen referred to as the “Walking Tree” not sure if this is its official name, but the description fits pretty well and is truly a unique tree that likely gets a lot of Instagram love.

 

 

I did stay for the sunset and shot a bit of video at Bryce Point. The footage wasn’t good enough to share here, sadly it was a bit dark with the bright sunlight streaming into the CCD, but the lower canyon already enveloped in darkness. It was a struggle of the light and dark forces and the fact that I was shooting the video in manual mode and didn’t switch over to automatic on my Z6. My iPhone did much better in this situation.

So the next day it was off to Zion and wow what a fantastic place to drive through, but just be aware you will be stopping constantly, well at least I was. Check out the video above to get a bit of an idea of this stop and a look back at the Grand Canyon stop I didn’t share in the previous video.

Here’s a few photos from that trip, I was rushed going through the park and planned poorly and ended up on a wild goose chase for that one location I wanted to see. Sadly a new Park Ranger sent me in the opposite direction and the next time I will have it all planned out perfectly, but even so, it was a wonderful place to wander and enjoy. I was surprised to see I only shot about 80 photos while in Zion, so planning for the next visit will be important.