Thor's Hammer
.... one of the many Hoodoos lining the Queen's Garden and Navajo Loop of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah
- Willa Cather.
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It's been a while since I posted an image here. Life has been hectic for the past couple of weeks. While we were not affected drastically by the COVID-19 pandemic, we didn’t take a chance with a premie in the house. Adjusting to work from home has been a significant challenge, especially with a young toddler in the house. So instead of a travel-filled summer, we promised each other the wife and I are back inside wistfully looking at old photos of the beautiful locations that we have visited. After a bit of adjustment to the new lifestyle, I see no reason not to keep on posting about some of the fantastic places that we will be soon introducing to our daughter.
Today's shot is from the beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park. A couple of years ago, we made a winter road trip covering almost all the national parks of Utah. Our first stop was Bryce Canyon, and we drove in an parked just as a snowstorm cleared the park of most of its visitors. Most of the park was closed the whole time we were there, but we still managed to wake up super early every day and go for a stroll among the beautiful hoodoos covered in fresh snow.
This particular formation is widely known as Thor’s hammer because of its unique shape, and frankly, I couldn’t get enough pictures of it. This photo brings so many memories, and we can't wait to get back out again.
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Thor's Hammer
Another unique and well-known rock formation from Bryce Canyon. I spent more time cleaning my shoes than photographing these hoodoos. It was super...
- Bob Dylan.
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This shot was taken at sunset point, a favorite spot at Bryce Canyon National Park. Unlike what the name implies this spot is a fantastic place to be both at sunrise and sunset. We originally planned to be here at sunset but unfortunately, due to the storm most of the colors were absent, and we came back with not much drama in the sky. Fortunately, I checked my photo pills app and noticed that the spot we were standing was going to a be perfectly lit up in the morning. So we returned in the morning and thankfully sunrise coincided with a beautiful post-storm sky and with the hoodoos covered in a fresh coat of snow.
Unfortunately, the storm and the night turned the hiking paths very icy, and we had a hard time walking down the extremely slippery trail. So we didn’t get to enjoy the trails as we originally planned but still got some excellent shots.
Bryce Canyon National Park
Thor's Hammer at sunrise from a short walk down the Navajo Loop Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park. The clouds were in the wrong position for the...
- Walter Scott.
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One of my favorite shots from our last road trip to Utah, almost exactly a year ago. We took this shot on our last day at Bryce Canyon National Park at the famous Sunset point. A snowstorm which shut down most of the Nation park had just cleared the area, and we were the only people here during sunrise that day. Despite the extremely slick trail, we decided to brave the cold and venture into the hiking trail to get close to the stunning Hoodoos and Thor’s Hammer formations.
I didn’t get a good shot of the mighty Mjolnir that day but this one and another shot which I posted some time ago captured the sense of the scene and the grandeur of the park wonderfully. Hopefully, I'd get a chance to come back and get the beauty of this park under better weather conditions.
- Samuel Butler.
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We spend the last days of 2016 enjoying a nice cold front that was moving into Bryce Canyon National Park. The whole park was shut down and other than some Asian tourists we had the whole park to ourselves. It was snowing pretty much the whole day for our first two days but on the third day as we got to sunset point in the morning we were greeted with crisp air and undisturbed layers and layers of snow over the beautiful geographic formations of the park. I made this shot of Thor’s hammer as the sun rose over the horizon, using one of the hoodoos to create a decent sun star.
- Michelangelo.
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Thor’s hammer is a precariously shaped hoodoo that looks as if it’s going to topple over any minute. But it has been intact for more years that I have been alive so I am not going to judge based on looks. This formation almost blends into the multitude of hoodoos when you look at it from the sunset point but if you take the time out to hike a few hundred feet down, the whole scene changes and you can view the majestic formation standing out against the vivid blue sky.
I am very glad that we decided to stick with our travel plans even after learning about the winter storm that was going to hit the park. I took this shot on our last morning at Bryce canyon just as the skies cleared out after the storm, we had a fresh coat of powder and it was worth the -10F cold to see this place with a fresh blanket of snow.
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Thor's Hammer!
Most notably Andrey Sulitskiy, Sandeep Thomas and Giuseppe Milo.