Bryce Canyon National Park | Los Angeles Photographer

Sorry for this long post, it contains roughly 55 photos of my trip to Bryce Canyon to celebrate Memorial Day weekend with Melody and friends. I headed off to Vegas as a pit stop to our final destination at Bryce Canyon National Park. The drive was took about 9 hours, which wasn’t too bad considering the location, but when we made it, it was magnificent. I wanted to catch all the sunrises and sunsets while I was there, unfortunately barely missed the first one on the first day. But our first day included a drive around the park to see the sites off the car route, we were planning on hiking around the following day. Here we are at our first viewpoint, Rainbow Point.

We later headed off to Black Birch Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, and Agua Canyon. I don’t quite remember where this was exactly.

Next stop, the Natural Bridge.

We headed through all the Canyons and viewpoints until we reached Bryce point, my destination for sunset. I wanted to get a view of this area before, so I could plan a shot later in the day. We then headed to dinner to meet up with the rest of our group, unpack our stuff and then rendezvous back at Bryce Point.

I was able to get a few highlight shots, but not what I really wanted.

As I was driving the Bryce point, I could see the clouds lighten up, turning from the cool blues to yellows to slight orange. I knew I was going to miss the best light. Instead I was able to get this interesting photo of Bryce Point with a storm in the background.

Since it was Melody’s birthday that day, our friends surprised Melody with a special cake.

Our Teepee for the weekend.

It was literally freezing that night, no one really expected sub 32 Fahrenheit temperatures. We had fun though, building a fire and eating smores.

Also a bit of light painting before we called it a night of some restless sleep for a few.

The next morning there were some equally as gloomy clouds for sunrise at sunset point.

And it ended up being an awesome sunrise.

I love the hoodoos, so I had to get a few close ups.

The others waiting in the cold for me to finish, sorry guys.

Marisa, Melody and Kristen, braving the cold with me.

Later, after eating some breakfast, we decided to go out for a hike around Fairyland Loop trail. And here are a few sites we passed along the way.

We passed by this cool looking rock formation, Tower Bridge.

I also made a huge panoramic of bryce during our hike.

Its amazing to see how all the viewpoints in Bryce vary so drastically, here are a few shots from Fairyland Point.

We also decided to do a little hike to see the iconic “Thor’s Hammer,” I was also preparing for the sunrise the morning after. We first headed down Wall Street, with these cool looking switch backs on the way down.

Our group, down near the bottom of Wall Street.

Going through Wall Street.

Arthur attempting a few canyoneering routes…

And we ended up going on the Navajo loop, rather than the planned Queens Garden Loop. Here was our ascent up towards Thor’s Hammer.

Another group photo by the Sentinel.

And the sun started to set, as we prepared to leave for another view point.

Our sunset at Paria Point.

The next morning, I headed out early to get some shots of Thor’s Hammer. My eyes were playing tricks on me; I thought I saw a silhouette of a guy sitting on the rocks enjoying the same view.

And here are my shots of Thor’s Hammer the following morning, I didn’t know if I wanted just the traditional view. I thought the non traditional ones came out a little better.