Hoodoo you think you're fooling'...

I finally fulfilled a childhood dream to visit Bryce Canyon. I can't actually tell you why I had this childhood dream, as I knew nothing about Bryce Canyon, probably couldn't tell you what state it was in, had never met anyone who had been there, and maybe, at least as a kid, had never even met anyone who had heard of Bryce Canyon. But I wanted to go there. And so, given the opportunity to take a vacation in Utah this summer, I chose Bryce as our destination. 

Bryce Canyon hoodoos

Now I suppose if I had thought about it, visiting a desert national park in the middle of the summer, might have struck me as a bit foolish--I know we hit top temperatures of 106 degrees when we were driving, but that's only because I didn't have a thermometer with me while I was hiking.

But it was magical. We hiked in a "secret" back way, from the town of Tropic, very early in the morning, and then there we were, on the canyon floor, in the middle of the hoodoos. No one around, just us, wandering among these fantastical sculptures. Looking at it from above, later that day, surrounded by tourists it was almost impossible to imagine that we had been down there.

Bryce Canyon Navajo trail