Missed It!
In preparation to shoot sunrise at Bryce Point this morning, I put on all my layers of warm clothes, packed up my gear, and put everything in the car. And then I saw the frost on the windshield. We keep a windshield scraper in the motorhome, so I got it out and cleaned the very thick coating of frost off the windshield. As I drove toward the park, the clouds thickened, and I nearly turned around and gave it up. But since I was up, I drove to Bryce Point anyway. Just as I got to the parking lot, the sun peeked through the tiny sliver of space between the horizon and the cloud layer. But by the time I got out to the point, it was gone. I needed those five minutes back that I spent cleaning my windshield. I hung around for a little while hoping the sun might find another opening or thin spot in the clouds, but the opportunity was lost.
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The
skies stayed overcast until mid-afternoon. We switched plans three or four times before finally deciding to skip our original plan of exploring
Cottonwood Canyon and replacing it with a hike down into Bryce Canyon. It turned out to be a great choice. We started the Queens Garden Trail at Sunrise Point,
hiked 3 miles through the hoodoos, and climbed out of the canyon at Sunset Point. Our hike started at nearly 8,000 in elevation and then followed a ridge line down
to the junction with the horse trail and the trail to the Peek-a-boo Trail. As we walked down the ridge line, we had glimpses into the main amphitheater
and hoodoos, but we were always shooting into the sun. Just past the junction, we hiked through a tunnel cut into a fin, and it was like we entered a different world.
Suddenly, we were hiking among the hoodoos as they towered above us. Every turn provided new hoodoos to shoot, and now they
were lit with the late afternoon light. The trail also flattened out, so it was much more like an afternoon stroll than a hike. The next 1/2 mile was gorgeous.
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The hoodoos began thinning out as we continued to drop down toward the wash at the bottom of the canyon. But just as we began to run
out of things to shoot, the Fairy Castle appeared on a ridge above us. We shot several places where the pines framed the castle before we found the perfect shot
through a clearing near the main wash. We reached the junction with the Navajo Trail and started our 1/2-mile climb up a narrow slot between the towering fins
toward Sunset Point. We shot Double Bridge up a side slot before we did some serious climbing up a series of about 20 switchbacks to reach the opening into the main amphitheater. Once through the opening, Thor's Hammer, Temple of Osiris, The Sentinel, The Pope, and the entire amphitheater opened
up below us. It was easy to understand why we had seen photographers shooting sunset along this trail earlier in the week. And best of all, the trail
wasn't nearly as steep as we climbed the final 100 feet. We reached Sunset Point about 5:00, so we were just in time to find "railing space"
to shoot sunset. Sunset looked very promising with high, cirrus clouds above the canyon, so there were plenty of photographers vying for space. We found a prime spot and waited for sunset. We compared notes with the other photographers around us and
waited for "the show." As it turned out, most of the clouds over the canyon disappeared just before sunset. Instead of a dazzling show of
golden clouds, we enjoyed a more subtle pink blush along the horizons on the north and south.
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After the complete cloud cover in the morning, we had nearly written off today. Instead, we had a very good afternoon shooting in the canyon.
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