Bryce Canyon National Park

So Salt Lake City was a conveniently placed stopover for our southward journey through Utah. If we had more time we would probably have liked to see some of the sights and the nearby great salt lake. If we happened to be there on a Thursday we would certainly have liked to attend a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The city is quite a sight where it sits nestled between the Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains but as far as we're concerned the greatest feature of Salt Lake City was the great Peruvian restaurant that we found not too far from our motel.

Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park

Our schedule didn't allow for any more though and early this morning we hit the road for southern Utah.

Southern Utah is known for it's variety of parks with a variety of weird landscapes. Bryce Canyon must surely rank fairly high on that weirdness scale. It is not so much a canyon as the name would suggest but more a natural amphitheatre formed through a process called "headward erosion". The erosion revealed thousands of geological structures called hoodoos which are probably the key feature of Bryce Canyon.

But let's not get into the technicalities of geological shaping of the Paunsagunt Plateau. Suffice it to say that the vistas you are confronted with when standing at the rim are pretty awesome.

The route to Bryce Canyon took us through the rather oddball town of Panguitch where the people seem to have a bizarre obsession with quilts. Quilts are draped from antique farm implements on every street corner. The decrepitude of the farm implements is overshadowed only by the horrific quilts. And I dread to think what it would be like in two weeks time when they have their annual quilt festival which the whole town seems to be getting ready for.

So tonight we're sleeping over in Cedar City, Utah, and tomorrow morning we're headed to Zion National Park and Arizona, possibly my favourite state of the ones I've had the privilege to see.

Panoramic view of Bryce Canyon