Hoodoos, hiking, and hilarity
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2010
1
4
19
Trip End
Jun 30, 2010
Where I stayed
Sunset Campground, Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
We wake up and hike again… why not wake up at 6:30 in the morning, look at one another, and decide to go on a big hike? Seriously, though, we did the other end of the Bright Angel trail, and it was awesome just after sunrise. And then a shower.
I do love a shower in the morning. Particularly the invigorating experience of paying for an eight-minute shower. How long does one shower? I had no idea before this trip, so I had this awful experience of setting up everything in advance – soap out, opened shampoo and conditioner. Jumping in when it's still cold to get the shampooing started. No way is the razor going in there, as I’m not shaving on a timer. So… I freak out completely for the first, what I think, is six minutes… I’m ready for my timing to be off. Roommates used to say I took ages in the shower. AGES. So, I am ready.
Finally, after what feels like fifteen minutes of just standing in the shower rinsing – ages after I am done the soaping, shampooing, conditioning ritual, I give up and turn the damn thing off. I get dressed. It is still going. What the heck happened? Either you are really, really unreasonable (Jenn, Sheila, Jaime!) or I have seriously shortened my time in this game. I am thinking of joining the Olympic short-shower team, as I obviously rock. A girl next to me is crying for her Mom to give her more quarters 'cause she still has soap in her hair. Fully dressed, I let her know she is more than welcome to my leftover time. Seriously, I am clearly a time-warping super hero of the showering variety.
Alas, Grand Canyon, we are ready to move on… and Bryce is our new love. First, though, we stop in Kanab, the Western Hollywood. We take in a hilarious museum of sorts, filled with props from Western films and complete with headdresses and guns and cowboy hats. I might be in trouble long term if I continue in my field, as I donned a headdress and rode a broomstick pony. Chris pretended to be hung for his cowboy ways. Hahahahahaha.
Back to Bryce, though. WOW. Thanks to Graham for recommending this one. We arrive at the park in the early afternoon to get our first-come, first-served campsite. We get the absolute LAST campsite in the place at 2:37p.m.: there are five adjacent porta-potties on one side and lines of caution tape on the other (marking the construction of the new toilets that are not in operation). Perfect. Seriously, the wind is violent and I am worried that either a porta-potty OR a large section of the new bathrooms is going to end up on top of our tent soonish.
We set up, go to the Visitor Centre, take a nap, and make what we think is a very early dinner: sausages and veggies. We have the sausages on hamburger buns and, like a good Dutch girl, I explain to Chris that cutting them up and eating them on these buns is much more reasonable than buying different buns and letting two half-bags of buns go bad. He is game and cuts his sausages into hamburg shapes. Really, Oma, his name is Kristof Van Johnstone for sure!
Afterward, we head out on the shuttle system, taking what we think is a very early bus to the Bryce Point. Unfortunately, we had no idea that Utah switched time zones, so when the driver announced we were on the last bus, we were faced with a hard decision: hike all the way back to our campground or ride the bus back and try again in the a.m. We took the chance, and thank goodness. Bryce’s point, close to the much-closer-than-we-thought sunset, was gorgeous. We basically chased the sun back through to Inspiration (okay, and slightly perspiration) point, and onto the appropriately-named Sunset Point. We then enjoyed a fun local beer and a very small side order of fries before trekking back to the tent.
Serious aside: Bryce’s canyon is spectacular. The signs are wrong though: the hoodoos are (mis)named after voodoo, true. However, voodoo does not hail from a South American language (that’s vague anyway!) but from the Maori word, utu. It is more associated with powerful unknowns than straight "evil," as the National Parks sign tells us. The Navajo elder’s story that the hoodoos in the valley are dangerous people frozen there by unknown forces fits well, though! And if you let your mind wander a bit, you can certainly see those people… choose your own, really! J
