Cross-Country Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park

Previously: Cross-Country Road Trip: Drive-Through Tour of Capitol Reef National Park

Travel typically involves movement. A physical, material shift from one location to another that reveals the glory of this world.

The vistas of the Alps versus the Andes versus the Himalayas. The striking contrast between the eastern and western banks of the Bosphorus Strait. The Pacific Coast Highway repeatedly taking your breath away with each successive bend in the road.

But sometimes you can find a place that allows you to stand perfectly still and let the world reveal itself to you, with each passing moment your view morphing into something new and unique and never to be seen again.

Bryce Canyon is one of those places. Like the balcony of an ageless theater, the easy trail that rings the top of Bryce Canyon provides vantage points to a great play unfolding on the characters below, with sunlight and shadow dancing in subtle transitions. The sand-toothed wind singing through the hollows where spires expand and, grown ancient, crumble to form a wholly different scene.

In a drama that has been unfolding for ten million years, Bryce Canyon has never seen two days that were exactly the same. And, although the change is imperceptible in the moment, it is also undeniable. Which makes it all the more beautiful.

So, pull up a chair and watch an endless series of sunsets in Bryce Canyon National Park where the story is always familiar but the ending is always a grand surprise.

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Next up: Cross-Country Road Trip: Speeding Tickets and Cold Water Rafting in Arizona’s Glen Canyon