Tuesday morning we broke out the hiking poles and began a descent into the Bryce Amphitheater toward the Queen’s Garden. This is a modest descent compared to some trails into the Canyon, but it reminded me too much of a descent into the Grand Canyon last year, where we struggled to get back to the rim on a hot, dry day.

Here are some photos that chronicle our trip on a cooler, yet warm spring day.
You can see the hoodoos  (spires, pinnacles) getting higher at eye level and then above us on the trail, which marks our moving toward the floor of the Amphitheater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The arch where Victoria stands below marks the halfway point in our descent.  From there the foliage gets thicker, walls rise higher, and the heat of the amphitheater floor rises as we descend.

 

 

At the bottom you can imagine Queen Victoria on her mount in the middle of a procession of five hoodoos. Sometimes these names tax the imagination’s ability to conceive. Reminds me of how we describe the astrological figures in the sky. Fetched far.

Well, maybe my visual imagination has significant limitations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the visual ambiguity of the image of our quest, I was proud to have made the two-mile hike into the Bryce Amphitheater and to return with muscles and tendons intact. It was more satisfying than that agonizing trail into the Grand Canyon and gave me confidence to make an upward hike to the Delicate Arches two days hence.