July 4, 2006: Zion & Bryce

We knew we were in a red state this morning: the TV in our hotel's breakfast room was tuned to Fox News, and the road was lined with celebratory flags in nearly every small town we drove through. In the car, apropos of Independence Day, I spoke with our boys about the differences between patriotism and nationalism. "I'm a patriot," I told them, "because I love my country. America is a wonderful place and is precious to me. But I'm emphatically not a nationalist because I don't believe my nation is inherently superior to other nations."

Tommy concurred: "Each country is better than all other countries in some way. It's the same with just about everything. Like people, for example. Everyone has a unique talent. To me, America is the best country because I grew up in it. But I don't think it's better than all the others in every way."

Temperatures today, like yesterday, were relatively cool, and it was a pleasure to be able to wend our way through the mountains with the windows down. We took the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway through southeastern Zion on our way to Bryce Canyon. The highway includes a series of switchbacks and a narrow, mile-long tunnel built in the 1920s. To fit modern recreational vehicles through it, we had to wait for oncoming traffic, then drive into the tunnel single-file.

On the other side of the tunnel, the terrain undergoes a transition. The soil is drier, the vegetation is scrubbier, and the character of the rocks changes: instead of a copper red, they tend to be a light beige with red striations. Scouring winds produce gentle, grooved slopes, and freezing weather causes cycles of contraction and expansion, leading to myriad cracks in the stone. The hills are dotted with small shrubs that cling to any water-retaining crevice. They remind me of the Southwestern Indians who, throughout the centuries, have eked out a subsistence here upon the slimmest of resources.

The boys were eager to get out of the car and climb one of the wide sandstone bowls we passed, so we did just that. Their eagerness was a bit scary, especially for their mom, as a misstep on the crumbling rock could have sent them tumbling down a very long way. We kept a tight hold of their hands on our descent, since the flat light didn't enable us to see footholds as well as we could on our ascent. Tommy scaled the highest and proudly dubbed himself a "master climber."

Danny wrote this about our hike: "Today I climbed very high on a giant mountain in Zion National Park. When I was almost to the bottom again, I saw a lizard doing push-ups!" He refers to a quick, repetitive bobbing behavior common to lizards in the wild. Debbie surmised that a high position gave the animal a better view, while a lower one offered better concealment. I speculated that since the lizard's eyes were on opposite sides of its head, the odd calisthenics enabled it to triangulate the position of objects, effectively creating binocular vision. Its brain could combine images to determine our height, distance, and speed of approach, allowing it to skitter away before we posed a danger.

We saw a variety of interesting rock formations. What does this one resemble to you?

This one is called "Checkerboard Rock" for obvious reasons.

There are many other photos I could put here, but I have to move on to Bryce Canyon, which features some of the most curious and dramatic rock formations in the world. On our way there, we passed a herd of buffalo. "Herd of buffalo!" I exclaimed. True to form, Tommy immediately responded, "Of course I've heard of buffalo."

Even before we reached Bryce, we were mightily impressed by the scenery and the hoodoos of Red Canyon, in Dixie National Forest, just west of the park.

It was easy to understand why early explorers and settlers called the rocks "hoodoos," for without a knowledge of the process of erosion or geologic time scales, they would indeed seem to have been created by magic or "hoodoo," a corruption of "voodoo."

The grandeur of the panoramic views that Bryce Canyon offers really does beggar description, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We hiked an enchanting three-mile loop from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point, seeing chipmunks and hummingbirds along the way. The names of the points amused Debbie. "We've hiked from Sunrise to Sunset!" she said with a grin.

These are among the odder hoodoos we saw.
Queen's Garden was the high point of the hike.

We drove to Bryce Point, where the view was truly stunning. A single photo simply cannot do justice to its majestic sweep. Imagine this view multiplied by ten.

We ended our day with dinner at Ruby's Inn, which is celebrating its 90th year of business just outside the park entrance. They put on a rodeo tonight, followed by a nice fireworks display. You can't get much more American than this!

We spent the night at the Quail Park Lodge in Kanab, just shy of the Utah-Arizona border.