Bryce Canyon National Park was a surprise. Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon had already impressed us but there it was - giant red rock formations - different and beautiful. It is a display of nature’s great sculpting skillsI and is truly a hiker’s paradise. We enjoyed our Queen’s garden hike ( suggested by our friend @Priyanka) from Sunset to Sunrise point. We started the 5 mile hike around 2 PM and it was crazy crazy hot in the park.

On this hike, we were joined by Jake and @Juniper from Mississippi. They were on their own road trip through the deserts of America and shooting on film cameras. We had some interesting conversations around moving West while walking through giant hoodoos or like Juniper called them Hui-duis :). 

A little change of topic but I think I want to add it here since by now we have been through 10 days of our trip.

Being a vegetarian, I am always looking for, if not robust, a good vegetarian options in a restaurant. Vegetarian dishes added on the menu as an after-thought does not sound inviting to me. I don't need Indian food but I do need interesting vegetarian food (San Francisco has spoiled me to the core with amazing vegetarian options in most cuisines.. Lol).

Interestingly, in all the Utah parks we got vegan + vegetarian options. I like to assume that these gorgeous hike loving parks are visited mostly by health conscious people, many of whom have vegetarian or vegan diets (ahem..). Whatever be the case, I loved the fact that there were vegetarian options on the menu and the touristy town surrounding the parks were catering to this market in-contrast to meat loving Great Plains (about that in a future post on.. how Anki survived and enjoyed the Great Plains..haha).

PS : An interesting fact (courtesy Ani) : The rock layer at top of the Grand Canyon is the same age as the rock at the base of Zion and the layer at the top of Zion is the same age as the base of the Bryce mountains.