We arrived at Bryce Canyon at around 3pm. The drive there was roughly two hours; all along we passed through gorgeous fields of grasslands. As usual, the entrance fee was $30 and you are allowed to drive through all areas of the park. Bryce Canyon was a lot smaller than I had expected. Of course, Bryce is nothing compared to the scale of the Grand Canyon. However, it is in no way less magnificent. Bryce is not just a canyon, but a large collection of natural amphitheaters that stand like peculiar looking columns. They almost look like an army of soldiers — neatly lined up in layers. It just so happened that the sun was shinning directly into the canyon, making everything look extra perfect.

We seem so happy but he’s really just smiling to hide his fear of falling down the cliff. It doesn’t look that scary in the photo but the area we were standing on was actually a small platform that hangs just off the edge of the cliff. One step backwards and we’ll be at the bottom of the canyon.

We continued to walk along the rim of the canyon until we found a path that cuts directly into the canyon. If you look at the following photos, you’ll see the trail that can take you to inspect the amphitheatres in closer distance. The trail begins at Sunrise point on the map, and leads deep into the canyon. You can even climb on to some of the rock columns (which of course I did, until my friends got angry at me, afraid that I’ll fall). It’s a very pleasant walk down the sandy path and definitely not a difficult one.

All along our walk, we got to see isolated thunderclouds which was really cool for all of us. But it wasn’t long before we noticed the clouds were drifting closer and close towards us (uh-oh). We hiked back up immediately, and actually had to run a little to get back to our car before it starting pouring… and then hailing! We hid in the car for a while to watch the craziness before heading to the nearest town for some dinner.

Behold the absolutely out-of-this-world beautiful view we saw on our way to Bicknell, where we spent the night. For hours, we did not see another car on the road. Thunderclouds surrounded us left and right while the snowy mountains stood directly ahead of us. It was so sublimely unreal.

And then… surprise! We hit a deer. 

I had never even seen a deer before, less to say worry about ever hitting a deer. Whenever I saw the deer sign on the side of the road, I would get excited and hope I actually get to see a deer. Well, not anymore. Hitting a deer was not a good experience. Thank god my friend jerked the car towards the left and slammed the breaks at the same time. The deer missed the front of the car and slammed into my right sideview mirror, which flew out and shattered into a million pieces. Luckily, we were all safe (other than being shocked to the soul) and the deer missed all the mechanics of the car. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we actually hit the deer head-on.

After the incident, we drove at a constant 45/mph because we were deathly afraid of hitting another deer. Look at the insane amount of deers roaming around the freeways. We didn’t see a single car or person until we reached our motel, but we probably saw around 200 deers and other roadkills on the freeway. Definitely a night I’ll never forget.

Just blogging about this makes me anxious. I’m incredibly honored to of the 1/206 people in Utah who experiences a deer collision accident per year (according to Desert News), but hopefully this will never happen again.

Last post on Utah will be up real soon!

 

xx

-Vivian