Photos of Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah, taken during my visit in September 2023

Photographs will help me remember the wonders of my recent trip to southern Utah, a much-needed respite from the human-made craziness which I strain to comprehend. But, being a woman of words, I needed to capture the feeling, as well as the physical beauty. Oddly, being in Bryce didn’t make me feel small or insignificant; it made me feel powerful to stand amidst such grandeur.

A Tribute to Bryce Canyon

It is a simple matter for scientists, explained by the geology of millennia,

layers of sediment stacked like pancakes, laced with

one mineral or another, a bit of iron oxide here, and there, a bit more.

Sandstone, limestone, shale hiding snail fossils and trilobites,

clues in the long game of time, prizes scattered in

Utah’s Crackerjacks box of ancient sand left behind by

a vast inland sea, dehydrated into desert, then rearranged

as plates shifted – contracting, expanding, crashing, twirling,

slipping like dancers coming together and pulling apart,

closing the show with one exquisite, cockeyed lift.

But to the naked eye, the eye trained only to see beauty,

it is pure magic. Shades of color painted in heavenly fashion:

ochre and gray and brown and a hundred intoxicating reds

from bold merlot to blushing pink, the colors of

a voluptuous sunset poured on the faces of cliffs,

the nooks and crannies of rocks.

Nature is the artist here, catching the eye with

random strokes, no two alike. Rock sculpted by wind and rain,

fissures stretched and squeezed, create acres upon acres of little creatures,

columns so bizarre and comical that our forebears thought voodoo must be to blame.

So hoodoos they were named, caves and arches dissolving into

fingers of stony life, each trying on a new outfit, a different hat.

As the prairie dog skitters across a rocky trail, does it know

what majesty lies beneath its tiny feet?

As the magpie settles into the shade of a pinyon tree,

does it sense the wonder of it all?

The climb leaves my heart exploding, but I am breathless

from the sheer surprise and grandeur greeting me at every turn.

This is our earth, otherworldly as it may seem.

Bewitched by the scale and grace of Bryce,

I feel the embrace of these craggy rocks as if they were

the most comforting of arms.