The Parks And The Hoodoos

10/15/23

Bryce Canon National Park, UT

“How long have you been here?”

“42 years. Well, 65 if count when I lived just down the way.”

“Do you feel like you’ve seen everything?”

“No, you never could. You would have to do something new every day and you’d still never see all of Southern Utah"

I have now identified two possible classes of national park. Ones that you need to pay to drive through, and ones that you don’t need to pay to drive though.

The former, seem to be, more premiere. Perhaps more freeway accessible, perhaps more iconic, or perhaps not special at all. The latter, in my experience, seem to be less trafficked, or even heard about.

The “drive-thru” parks I’ve been to are:

North Cascades

Capital Reef

Bryce Canyon (on a technicality)

Bryce Canyon has a drive-thru section in the north, and one main road north and south that does require a fee. However, I still argue that it has similar qualities to the other two.

What’s strange is that I feel a common perspective to be that the “drive-thru” parks are of a lesser quality, and a let down, due to the idea that you aren’t getting the full value out of your national parks pass. Ironically, this makes them some of my favorites. Not because of the locations, although they are incredible in their own right, but because of how they tent to be used.

It seems that the “drive-thru” quality can also speak to the amount of roads, and therefore development, inside the park. This makes them feel much more wild compared to the various driving routes and large information centers or lodges. The low amount of roads also means that most of the park can only be accessed with long hikes or backcountry permits. This, in my opinion, requires visitors to immerse themselves a little more into nature in order to truly experience the park.

Again, all of these are my opinions.

It should be noted that these parks suffer from the same problem of every park, anywhere, in that they weren’t always wild. I find it very strange that the visitor center teaches about indigenous practices and customs in the area, but not the history of how they left. I’m curious to research more about the native history of these parks.

All that to say, I found myself incredibly grateful to be able to visit Capital Reef and now Bryce Canyon. Both feel unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I had great experiences in both of them. Capital Reef would take months to explore, Bryce Canyon maybe a week, but still very unique features. Bryce Canyon is almost more impactful to me due to its position in the Grand Staircase, than its towering clay Hoodoos.

In Bryce Canyon, Hannah and I did a hike with people on it. Probably because it was the most common loop in an already limited national park (only 60 miles of trail in the entire park). Incidentally, the two people I asked don’t like working there because it’s so slow most of the time. But the people added a different element than we were used to.

I found that my thinking-out-loud comments, often solely intended to make Hannah laugh, can be interpreted differently by strangers. Most people laughed when I marveled at how close the Queen Victoria Hoodoo resembles Queen Victoria (it doesn’t), or when I complained about how everything looked the same (it was all incredible). But one person thought I was being cynical about the view, and grumbled at me because he thought the hike was amazing. It’s possible that because he was from Belgium he doesn’t understand American humor.

Mashed potatoes and black beans for dinner tonight, prepared by Hannah. Staying in a national forest in the southwest again meant I made the biggest fire I possibly could.