It was a fairly long drive across southern Utah from Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park, most of which was filled with bluish grey scenery with mysterious mountain backdrops, until we passed through an area called Red Canyon, where the rocks suddenly took on a bright reddish orange, and we had to drive through two archways in the rock. Snow was falling, and got heavier as we pressed on to Bryce Canyon City, which is not exactly a City, more of a village, but one that has an excellent big hotel and restaurant called Ruby’s Inn. Though we stayed across the street at another nice hotel, we had dinner at Ruby’s both nights, hearty all-you-can-eat grub in a cowboy setting. We were spending just one day hiking Bryce Canyon, and while the landscape was covered in snow, it was another blue sky day for our exploring. It was busy, and not easy to find a place to park, but we started out at Sunrise Point, where my son and I hiked into the surreal landscape of the Queens Garden. Bryce Canyon is famous for its distinctive ‘hoodoos’, tall rock formations that look like the surface of an alien planet. While hoodoos exist elsewhere too, Bryce has the largest concentration of them, and to look down upon the valley from the plateau is like looking into an impenetrable maze. The trail felt like going on an adventure, and as we got deeper in the path got muddier and muddier. We had special metal devices for our boots to give extra grip, but our boots were absolutely caked in orange mud when we were done.

I forgot to bring my sketchbook with me, which was unlike me. As my wife didn’t come on the hike into the steep valley, she walked along the rim, before heading back to the hotel to get some snacks and pick up my sketchbook. The drawing above is one I did afterwards at the hotel, I really wanted to catch the unusual shapes in this place. The sketch at the very top, the distinctive and famous ‘Thor’s Hammer’, I drew quickly at the trailhead when I got my sketchbook. I did want to try to draw a panorama of the landscape though, so I drew the whole scene below from the Sunset Point – though in pencil outline, I did start some of the ink but decided to go and hike along the rim a little more, so I ended up drawing most of that at the hotel too. We loved this place. It’s not often you get to see a place so spectacular. It took a long time to get there, but these are the parts of America you just have to see to believe. And it was so red!

The Queen’s Garden merged with the Navajo Trail, which took me and my son through more muddy oaths and snowy vales, before leading us upward in a steep zigzag, and passing the aforementioned Thor’s Hammer. Here it is again, below. You really get the sense of mythology here, and it reminded me of the Valley of the Mystics in the Dark Crystal. We felt pretty great when we made it back up to the top, that was a good achievement for us both. We watched over people starting their trail wearing nice new trainers, not exactly waterproof hiking boots, and we were like, good luck with that. It took me a good while to clean my boots.

You can find out more about Bryce Canyon here. It’s another National Park off our list! We walked along the Rim Trail looking down into the mass of hoodoos; some trails were not open due to conditions, but we were not overdoing the hiking that day, more taking in the amazing scenery. Still, it was busy and so we headed to the gift shop/information centre so I could get all my usual postcards and stickers and pins, and get my sketchbook stamped. I wonder which national park we will go to next?