Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hike

We visited Bryce Canyon the first day that we arrived in this area.  But we always planned to come back before we left during our one-week stay.  We just had to watch that riveting national park film and we wanted to see some more of those beautiful hoodoos.  We already had another hike picked out that we wanted to do.  So the  last day we were staying in Panguitch, we made the 25-mile trip back to Bryce Canyon.

While we had a 90-degree clear weather day for our first trip 5 days ago, it was 40 degrees and very cloudy today.  A jacket definitely felt good when we started our hike.  With 24 hours of rain, the paths at the top of the canyon were muddy and slippery.  Maybe we won't take this hike after all . . .

But if we looked toward the north, the skies were clearing.  So we hiked on because these hoodoos were too beautiful to stop now.

We are on the Fairyland Loop today.  An 8-mile loop with lots of ups and downs in elevation, it took us quickly to the bottom of the canyon.

As pretty as the rock formations are looking down from the canyon rim, we think they are even better while looking up from the bottom of the canyon.

You can barely see Denisa at the bottom of the next picture, wearing that bright turquoise blouse that stands out from all the orange and pink rock.  This is one of the grandest views at Bryce, looking like a white Roman cathedral on the mountain with a city of pink turrets below.

Here's another angle of the same view just because it was so beautiful.  We have obviously wandered into another one of God's wonders!

The Fairyland Loop led us back up to a height where we are again looking down on the tops of the hoodoos.  The forces of erosion change the shapes and sizes of the flaky limestone within the park.  This picture shows just how flaky some of the hoodoos are on the top.

The clouds followed us all day, and we had resigned ourselves to hiking in the rain.  We are 2 hours into the hike now, and feeling very blessed that we are still dry.

Here is another look at a herd of hoodoos.  It's hard to capture their size and majesty, but Denisa is just a dot at the bottom center of the picture.

If we would tire of looking at rock formations, we could be awed by the old pines that somehow survive in this barren landscape.  The old trees often twist in response to these harsh conditions.  This tree had a perfectly twisted trunk before it turned toward the sky.

The life-cycle of a hoodoo usually begins as a solid rock fin with a cap rock that protects it.  As the cap erodes, the solid fin will erode into individual columns.  Sometimes it will erode with windows or cracks between the columns.  Denisa is peeking out the largest window in the middle of this fin.
The geological history can be seen, as the different layers represent different eras and mineral-content of sediment.  We just know that the changes from red to orange to pink to white is beautiful.

After circling the fairyland loop, we are returning to the car by hiking the 2.5 mile rim trail.  To get energy for the rest of the hike, we stop here to eat the picnic lunch we packed.  This is one great hoodoo view for a picnic!
Once on the rim trail, we are sometimes behind a hill and can't see the canyon at all.  Denisa must have gotten a little bored, because she started chasing the resident canyon birds and got this picture.

When we do get back to the canyon views, we are looking down at the top of the rock formations.  That would allow Mark to climb out on the rock cap of a huge fin.  It made a great picture with a view of the distant pink cliffs peeking through the window in the rock.

One last view from the rim--a panorama shot of those crazy hoodoos.

Right before we got back to the car, we took this last picture.  We have been on the trail for 4.5 hours, and we feel so blessed that the predicted rain never came down here at Bryce Canyon.  The Fairytale Loop and Rim hike was 8.5 mile long, with lots of climbing up and down into the canyon. 

It was a great farewell hike through another of God's wonders!  We'll be on the road tomorrow to a new location down the road, but we have really enjoyed our time here!