28. RedCanyon & Bryce Canyon NP - UT, ..

3. Red Canyon - Dixie National Forest
A place of diversity, straddles the divide between the Great Basin and the Colorado River in southern Utah. Scenery ranges from desert canyon gorges of amber, rose, ans Sienna to high mountain forests, plateaus, and alpine lakes. Red Canyon stunning red rock walls tell stories from over 600 million years ago. The brilliant Claron Limestone that forms the famous hoodoos—rock formations that resemble statues—was deposited in a freshwater lake, unlike the salty bodies of water from other regions. Over time, erosion sculpted these fascinating rock towers.

*Excursion: Hoodoo formation
Hoodoos don't grow like trees but are eroded out of the cliffs where rows of narrow walls (fins) form. Frost-wedgimg enlarges cracks in the fins, creating holes or windows. As windows grow, their tops eventually collapse, leaving a column. Rain further dissolves and sculpts these limestone pillars into bulbous spires called hoodoos. The delicate climate balance between snow and rain ensures the new hoodoos will emerge whole others become reduced to lumps of clay.

4. Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon's serene vistas are deceptive; the landscape is never static. In the early morning at the rim you can experience the chilly dawn, crystalline blue sky, and rock ablaze with the ruddy light of sunrise. Later the perspective dramatically recomposes the scene below. The sun arching across the sky casts a kaleidoscope of slowly altered hieß and shifting shadows over the land. Every two hours you peel off layers of clothing like an onion as the air rapidly warms. Thin air can leave you short of breath. The high elevation that causes these effects and creates the climate that weathers the cliffs and bulbous columns called hoodoos. After sunset the chill returns, listen through this advancing twilight for the faint clatter or murmur of stones tumbling in the distance. At Bryce Canyon the forces of weathering and erosion never rest, not even for a day. This dynamic mesmerising place is like no other.
Bryce Canyon is part of the Colorado Plateau, a geological “layer cake” of sedimentary rocks that have been uplifted over millions of years. We hiked the Navajo Loop Trail, descending into the narrow paths of Wall Street before connecting with the Peekaboo and Queen’s Garden trail to make our loop longer and more exciting .The landscape is surreal, with arches formed by frost, weathering, and gravity.

I was particularly struck by the bristlecone pine trees—these hardy survivors seem to live off air and love, clinging to life in this sandy, dry environment. Bryce Canyon is simply incredible and priceless. It is poetry in stone.

5. Kodachrome Basin State Park
We arrived at Kodachrome Basin in the evening and enjoyed a quick but memorable glimpse of the stunning rock formations that have made this park famous.Leia mais