Hoodoo you Do?

 Here are a few more shots of the toadstool hoodoos to follow on from my last post. 

These hoodoos fall within (or rather stand within) the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I had made an assumption that this land was a part of the Navajo Nation (Diné), )which was a reasonable assumption because I had stayed at Shash Diné campsite the previous night) however the toadstool hoodoos have greater significance in Paiute tradition. The Paiute people's land encompass much of Southern Utah and in their traditions these hoodoos and those at Bryce canyon are the "legend people" who were turned to stone by the Coyote God Sinawava for past bad deeds. Apparently stories like this are part of the Paiute's oral traditions which are traditionally only told during the winter season.

Looking back at the pictures I shared yesterday and the very clear rock face it is easy to see why traditions like this have developed.

How do you Hoodoo?

 When I was planning my US road trip in May/June of this year I think the part I was most looking forward to was the couple of days  I would be camping in the desert in Arizona. Of course the trip as a whole was amazing and each day had something special but I was so excited to camp out, see the unpolluted night sky and experience the desert scenery that I remembered from the Saturday morning westerns I had watched as a kid. I was definitely not disappointed especially by the night sky (see previous post "Natural Wonder" from 26th June) or by the views of the Grand Canyon.

On researching the route from Page AZ to Bryce Canyon UT I noticed a marker on the map for the Toadstool Hoodoo Trailhead just off Highway 89 outside Kanab, Utah. I was intrigued and thought it would be a good spot to break up the journey and explore. Even though it was only late May it was blisteringly hot and walking along the dry river bed there was no shade so I was glad that the walk from the highway to the hoodoos wasn't actually too far.

I have picked a few shots for today's post, the first shows part of the trail and you can see how flash floods have carved a path through the sandstone creating an ever changing landscape.

In the other shots we can see a couple of my favourite hoodoos, remarkable structures caused by millions of years of erosion. These are quite different to the more conical structures in Bryce Canyon since they have the harder capstones that look a bit like hats. I think there is a very definite face in one of them too, I could almost imagine it speaking in a deep voice to tell tales of the many things that must have happened in its "lifetime". They certainly give a literal meaning to the term "rock face".

I was definitely pleased to have stopped here, it left a great impression .

Iconic Views

 I wasn't able to do what I had originally planned to do today so I took a little time to have a look at some of the photos I took during my US road trip earlier in the year. There are lots of good memories associated with the pictures I took but most of the images won't get shared on here. I thought however that a few images of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were worth sharing. 

Growing up and watching movies such as Dirty Harry and Bullitt, and TV shows like the Streets of San Francisco I often saw shots of the bridge and the steep hills and streetcars so being in the city for the first time and seeing these iconic sights invoked a mixture of feelings. I didn't have enough time in the city to get some of the shots I would have liked to get but I was keen to get some nice views of the bridge. It felt a little unreal driving across it the first time and I was excited to drive up to the various viewing areas to get a good view of the bridge and the city in the distance.

Of course being such a well known sight there are millions of images widely available and so I was hesitant to add mine since they won't really add anything new. However I think that they are good images and I have tried to make the best of them. Some were taken from Hawk Hill and others from Battery Spencer. It was about 7pm when they were taken and the low sun in the west gave a nice light to the structure and the high rise buildings in the city. It was incredibly windy but at least there was no fog, although a little mist might have added a different atmosphere to the images. 

There is a lot of haziness in the far distance which may have been caused by wild fires, although I cannot be sure. When I drove back to San Francisco a few weeks later, driving down from Lake Tahoe and across the Oakland Bay Bridge I drove through an area where fires were burning on the hills along the freeway.