Bryce Eroded Side of a Plateau

My friend Sam has been working at Bryce Canyon as an intern and since I'm in Cedar City which is only an hour and a half from there I promised him that I would go visit him.  It took quite some time to actually get out there because my summer has been a busy one (to say the least.)  A few weeks ago we planned on going, however, it didn't work out because Sam wasn't going to be in Bryce's, so instead we went to Arches National Park, which, by the way, was another fabulous trip.  The drive there was like nothing I had ever seen before.  I'd like to call it our "rainbow drive."  The sun was at the perfect angle.  We saw at least ten rainbows throughout the course of our drive.  We stayed in Green River with Kya's aunt, then went hiking until the rain stopped us.  

Best Friends at Arches 

Anyway, this Wednesday me and Kya finally made it happen!  It's nearly the end of the summer, but who cares, it still happened.  I got off work and then Kya and I headed up there. We got there a little earlier than we planned to meet Sam, so we went into the visitors center and looked around.  One of my favorite moments at the visitors was when Kya and I were listening to this desert music and Kya had a raccoon puppet on her hand.  They basically became best friends.  

Sam met us at the visitors center and then took us on a little tour of the park.  We went to see his little cabin that he stayed in all summer.  As you walked in there was a bedroom to the left, a bathroom straight ahead, and a kitchen on the right.  I guess you really don't need much space to live.  It was quaint, in a good way.  Next we went to some of the viewpoints.  Bryce Canyon is truly beautiful--the red rock formed into what looks almost like millions of upside down icicles, formed over millions of years.  Each layer of sedimentary rock a different shade ranging from pink, red, to orange.  

We started our hike from a point (I think it was called Inspiration Point.. or maybe Sunset point?)  which led is down in between the towering red upside down icicles.  We did some exploring throughout the hike.  Sam saw this offshoot that he always wanted to go down, but never had.  So we did.  Also, there comes a fork in the road, which you can either go on the horse trail or the other trail.  Since Sam had never done the horse trail either, we went that way. We climbed trees, stopped at any running water and made dams then created a flash flood afterwards.  It was like being a little kid again.  Sam also taught us that Bryce Canyon is indeed, not really a Canyon.  It is an eroded side of a plateau, so I decided we should rename it... Bryce Eroded Side of a Plateau.  Not quite as catchy... I can see why it's called a canyon.  In the end, we figured we hiked about five miles total.  I enjoyed every second!