From Zion, we drove east to Kanab where we spent the night in a local hotel. In the morning we joined our tour that was to go out to Alstrom Point. Because of the weather, the tour was changed to an overnight at Bryce Canyon National Park.
Bryce is a Challenge!
The problem with trying to photograph Bryce Canyon National Park is akin to trying to discern order in a rainforest. What is your subject?
On this, my first visit to this fantastic park, I let the vastness of the place and the beauty of the chaos overcome me. I didn’t feel comfortable hiking down into the canyon alone because there were just no other people around. If something were to happen, well so sad, too bad.
Not that I was afraid of getting lost, but there were plenty of ways to slip, to fall, to break your neck. Another time.
My fellow photo tour member and guide, Kathleen Gardner. They are framing up Thor's Hammer from the trail below Sunset Point.
In the background are the mountains of Grand Staircase Escalante National Momument. in the midground on the left is "The Sinking Ship" and in the foreground on the right, "Thor's Hammer"
Thor's Hammer stands high above all of the hoodoos in The Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon NP. The Sinking Ship is off to the right.
Tall pine trees stand dwarfed by the surrounding hoodoos in the Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon NP
A gnarley pine at the top of a cliff at the Amphitheater in Bryce Canyon National Park
Pine trees stand on the edge of the Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon NP.
A knob on top of a hoodoo in the Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon NP looks like a sport car's gear shift lever.
The forest flows like a river from this canyon at the Amphitheater in Bryce Canyon NP
Late spring snow clings to the cliffs and hoodoos at Bryce Canyon NP
A series of hoodoos and ridges point out into the valley east of Bryce Canyon
A line of cliffs across the center of the frame are reminiscent of castle walls, or the Great Wall of China
A small snowstorm is sweeping across the Sinking Ship at Bryce Canyon NP.
This image in a composite panorama of the Natural Bridge.
Hopefully that conference in Kanab. The Landscape Photographers Conference. That one, will go ahead in 2021. If it does, I plan to visit Bryce again. This time we will be a month later in the year so the ice and snow will be less. We will plan to be there for several days and will get out on the trails down in amongst the hoodoos.
I haven’t gone back through the many photos I took of Bryce. There are probably some in my catalogue which are now, in hindsight, better than these but, here are two of my favorite shots from this year.
Tall pine trees stand dwarfed by the surrounding hoodoos in the Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon NP
A gnarley pine at the top of a cliff at the Amphitheater in Bryce Canyon National Park
The pine trees below the canyon wall help to emphasize the sheer size of the place.
The gnarly one at the top of the cliff speaks to the challenge of surviving such an environment.
Dave, these photos are gorgeous. I think the snow really adds to the pictures because it allows contrast when all else is basically red. Nicely done! – Dawn
I’m getting bolder as I get older (or something.)
The conference that I went down to attend in March last year has been rescheduled for this April. I’m hoping it goes ahead with an in-person option – I want the excuse to go back then. When I’m there I am going to do some serious hiking down into those canyons.
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