Do Do That Hoodoo


Utah

Bryce Canyon took my breath away.  It wasn’t just the altitude.  At over 9,000 ft. it’s true I was panting and giddy, but the sheer other-worldliness of the place would have done it anyway.  How is it even possible this place exists?







Fortunately Bob was on hand to explain once again and I have a new favorite geological term: hoodoos, so named because black magic was surely involved in their creation.  Nothing as mundane as erosion.   They certainly cast a spell over me and left me breathless and light-headed and somehow, shall we say, inspired?  



You have to hand it to the early Mormon pioneers.  They were fearless and determined in their quest for farmland in this forbidding land.  But their naming skills feel somehow lopsided.  They had no hesitation in naming a town Virgin, or naming a modest mountain Mary’s Nipple which, unless poor Mary was differently formed, or her fella was feeling the effects of the altitude, bears little resemblance to that part of the female anatomy.  I like to imagine the scene between Mary and her pioneer when he tells her he’s named a mountain after her…..


Poor Mary’s Nipple in background.  

So, some imagination then, or maybe just wishful thinking and yearning. And yet they called  these magnificent hoodoos ‘stovepipe’ or ‘chimney’.  If the women had been given naming rights I bet they’d have come up with something different.  Jacob’s er…. Ladder? (to keep it within the realm of the biblical). Just a thought.






The Kodachrome Basin State Park campground we stayed in was also rather inspiring - at least to me.  This was the view from our window.  Dan called it a chimney.  Let’s just leave it at that then, shall we?






Comments

  1. kate dwyerNovember 14, 2021 at 6:57 AM

    love your sense of humor. we were at Kodachrome too and I distinctly remember naming it phallic rock.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim BNovember 14, 2021 at 1:30 PM

    The pictures imply much more size and interest than what I'd known of Bryce Canyon. It is puzzling how the local geological erosion seems to favor a wear that eventually shapes towers. From your visit well below sea level in Death Valley to your present location nearly two miles higher, Bryce Canyon's fiery geology sparkles under a brisk high-altitude sky.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WinniwomanNovember 14, 2021 at 4:58 PM

    Your pictures are wonderful! The colors are amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trailer Trash MamaNovember 15, 2021 at 2:29 PM

      Thanks MJ! Hard to do it justice with my little iPhone though.

      Delete

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