Utah Parks Road Trip, Day 5: Bryce Canyon

This is our last day in Bryce Canyon. Four nights is probably more than what most people spend, and tomorrow, we head over to Zion. Everyone talks about how wonderful Zion is, but I just can’t imagine it being more spectacular than Bryce. It’s too bad that a lot of the trails weren’t tracked what with the snow, but after all, I did say before we came that if we’re going to go to all the trouble to brave the snow, it sure would be a shame if there weren’t pretty snow in the pictures. Zion is quite a bit warmer than Bryce, so I’m hoping to get some running water in the photos there.

So after the past few days of hiking, today we took the time to visit all of the view points on the main scenic drive through Bryce. When we came to “Natural Bridge,” we stepped over to the edge, looked down, and said WOW! The sun was over in the corner of the scene, and I framed the photo at 24mm to get it in (though I wish it was lower down in the sky). I used a small aperture of f/22 because that would turn the bright sun dot into a star, which meant a shutter speed of 1/80 sec at 200 ISO. I kind of like the lens flare – I think it adds to the spirit of the photo. I played around with the photo afterwards in Photoshop too – not sure which version I like better. What do you think?

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