Friday - day 2 (continued)

We arrived at Bryce National Park in mid afternoon. The shuttles had worked so well at Zion, that I had us go with them again. That was a mistake. We had long waits for shuttles and it meant we did not have access to our car. The combination of altitude, bad cold and lack of water (we didn't think to bring bottles from the car) really got to Linda and even a short walk was laborious for her.

Still Bryce was beautiful - it was everyone's first or second favorite location during the trip. We stopped at Bryce, Inspiration, and Sunset Points where we had vastly different views of the same two or three mile wide natural amphitheater. Nancy hiked between two of the points and the shuttle was so slow that she beat us to the next one. Bryce was made by erosion, rather than by a river, so technically it is not a canyon. The rock forms columns called "hoodoos" remind me of temple roofs in Thailand. The pink, white and red colors of the stone are striking.