This picture is me at Bryce Canyon National Park in August of 2012. I was going into my senior year of high school and hadn’t taken any environmental studies classes yet. My primary relationship with wilderness at that point mostly consisted of myself being scared of it. I was particularly terrified of climate change, because I had seen An Inconvenient Truth in sixth grade and remained completely terrified by the prospects it put forward. I also hated areas that I deemed to be “rural” or uninhabited due to the lack of contact with the “real” world they presented. Now, I have realized that wilderness is the real world, or, wilderness does not have to be something held completely separate from human society. Wilderness is just as much of a part of the United States as major cities and populated areas, if not more important. Instead of being afraid of the wild, I can learn to appreciate it as an important part of human existence.
Sincerely,
Bryce Canyon National Park
This popular park is most famous for its colorful hoodoos, and there are more of these artfully eroded spires here than anywhere else on Earth. The area is not actually a canyon, however, but a series of amphitheaters which feature remarkable rock formations and extensive forests dominated with conifers, including ancient bristlecone pines. Together with Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks, Bryce Canyon is part of a geologic wonder known as the Grand Staircase, an immense area of rock with layered sedimentary formations ranging from 600 million to 2,000 million years old.
State(s): Utah
Established: 1942
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Greetings from Bryce Canyon National Park
I've been a national park junkie for more than 30 years. This is the first trip west with my partner Keith (who hadn't been to many NPs) in 2007. We hadn't been dating long and unbeknownst to him, it was somewhat of a "test" for him. I'm happy to report…
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