Trip in US West Coast - Day 5

Sun, Aug 26, 2007

We passed Colorado Plateau in the morning on our way to Lake Powell. Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 30 km³ of water when full. Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the controversial Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. [Wikipedia]

We took a cruise on "Canyon Princess" and had our breakfast on board ($35/person). The view was really beautiful, the lake was greenish blue and the canyon rocks showed strong contour in the morning sunlight. It was picturesque.

Then we went on to Bryce Canyon National Park, located in southwestern Utah. Despite its name, this is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to its unique geological structures, called hoodoos, formed from wind, water, and ice erosion of the river and lakebed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views. Bryce is at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2400 to 2700 m), whereas the south rim of the Grand Canyon sits at 7,000 feet (2100 m) above sea level.[Wikipedia]

It was too exciting to see, I took tens of picture from this amazing amphitheater. Could not stop adoring the beauty of God's creation. Way too big and too amazing!

Actually we only had around 1,5 hours inside the national park and there were three points that we visited, two of them (Bryce Point and Sunset Point) had a pathway from the street to the canyon view point. And 20 minutes was not enough to walk the path, take pictures and to gaze that preety canyon. Therefore I was overjoyed as our tour bus could not start the engine. We got one additional hour free time to walk around the Sunset Point, took picture again and just sat there, enjoying the view. Thank you Lord :)

Besides that, we had one hour to look around Ruby's Inn, the largest lodge in the area. The shops across Ruby's were built in western style, just like in cowboys' time, so I took some pictures there. After the bus fixed, we went to Salt Lake City to stay overnight. I was so happy that day.