My First Trip Report Begins- USA & Canada

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By my own admission I planned this part of the trip badly, allowed a day & a half each at Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon, with what we scratched the surface of, we will be back!

Sitting down for lunch in Zion heard the news that 7 people had died the day before in a box canyon following a flash flood, not a good beginning.

We took a drive down to the park, good system hop on the shuttle and catch the bus to multiple points. It is funny, both born and bred in Sydney, whilst we love going back for the occasional visit to the “big smoke” however we both love more the knockout blow that Mother Nature can deliver, plenty of those in this part of the world.

Once you have experienced living in regional areas, especially where we live, what you miss on one hand you make up on the other. However I digress.

As for photographs, how do you choose which are your favourites, I was up early next morning trying to get a few in that hallowed light, here are a few of those.

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The buses do a circular trip of the park, there is plenty of advice at the visitor centre as to what you can expect at each stop, for those who want an easy hike to those who are adventurous.

When you have cliff tops over 7,000 ft above you, easy to be impressed.

I took close to 300 photos, here are a few, we will be back.

Zion 5.jpgZion 6.jpgZion 7.jpgZion 8.jpgZion 9.jpg
 
Just found your wonderful trip report.
Haven't read it all yet but signing on for more reading I'm only u to the Canada part.
We spent 6.5 weeks on the east coast of the USA in September/Oct bringing back lots of memories.
Beautiful photos!
 
Great stuff and top pics!

I spent several weeks some years back roaming around that region to all the 'spots', so you are bringing back great memories :). It truly is beautiful.
 
We are back again in the morning for a half day tour, then we are on our way to Bryce Canyon.
The weather gods were again smiling on us, perfect autumn weather however it was time to move on.

Splendid scenery as we drive past the park, no wonder these places are so well frequented. We approach the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, I wasn’t aware of this, where we are stopped by traffic control and handed a baton which were asked to hand over at the other end. A bit bemused we did as asked, can see why they restrict the size of the vehicles, bit tight in there.

Looked it up later and found they have been doing this since 1989, a $15 fee applies for larger vehicles to be escorted through the tunnel.

The purpose of the tunnel when built in the late 1920’s was to create direct access to Bryce Canyon & the Grand Canyon from Zion Park, an impressive bit of engineering.

A few final photos of Zion.

Zion 15.jpgZion 16.jpgZion Canyon 17.jpgZion Canyon 18.jpg
 
On our way to Bryce, can be done in a couple of hours, from memory our journey around three.

We had booked accommodation in the park itself so we would be right at the action.

We hit our first view of the Bryce Hoodoos, and the sky is a brilliant shade of blue, so impressive as a contrast against the ochre colours.

Arrive at Bryce Canyon lodge, old but functional, not that we intend to spend much time in there. About a 200 metre walk to the canton rim, we are walking uphill so we can’t actually see anything till we hit the rim.

So as travellers, sometimes we see something that makes us pause and think, how good is this. It can be architecture, a church or a ruin, there are plenty of man made constructions that give you that feeling.

But in my opinion there is no comparison to mother nature, she designs places and vistas that simply blow you away, this is one of her great temples, a photographers joy.

A few photos.

Bryce 1.jpgBryce 2.jpgBryce 3.jpgBryce 4.jpgBryce 7.jpg
 
The first and second photos in the continued part now grace the walls of our home on 23" by 30" frames, mounted on acrylic, they are almost three dimensional.
 
Up at 5.00 am next morning to get the sunrise shots, a lovely 30 degrees F. First one to arrive at the sunrise platform, magic start to the day.

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Phwoar! Look at that cross bedding. :p

Like others, this is bringing back so many memories. My story was that in 1991 I had to drive across the USA from a mine I was working on in Nevada to Toronto to take up a new position there. I took 10 days and dropped in on every National Park I could find!
 
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So this particular morning we were making our descent into the valley, I mentioned in an earlier post the colour of the sky, this day it was spectacular in the morning.

You will notice in my photos a tree growing in what can be described as a narrow gully, it was probably 15-20 metres high, obviously been there a while, but to grow so tall in such harsh conditions, wouldn’t want to estimate its age.

Photos of our walk in and out, fair way above sea level so my congratulations to the better half, was a bit of a struggle but she made it.

Bryce 14.jpgBryce 15.jpgBryce 16.jpgBryce 17.jpgBryce 19.jpg
 
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