Story of Mossy Cave

 

Mossy Cave is the least notable of hikes around Bryce Canyon but it’s suddenly become popular because every other trail is closed.  It’s pleasant enough but the named goal is unworthy so to speak.  There’s also a watercourse with a waterfall that falls short of the requirements to make a good picture, but I go anyway, remembering there was something here worth shooting.

I see it, high up on a ridge.  To go or not to go?  Bugger it, I’m off, the light looks terrific as I ascend yet another steep, crumbly rise towards the pillars that have shed the rubble.  Because it’s so fragile it’s like two steps forward, one step back, but it’s looking more promising by the minute.

The early morning rays have highlighted the two arches I’m after and the colours are at their brightest.  Then, winding across the ridge in and out of formations I reach a large curvy pillar that towers over most everything else and the view from there is an expansive 180 degrees over hoodoos, snow and forest.

                                       

It’s surreal, being in a place devoid of humanity with such bizarre shapes within touching distance.  At one such hole in the rock I actually walk through.

Way below there’s a canal, hand hewn around 1890, that still delivers water to the semi-arid regions nearby, only drying up once in 2002 during a severe drought.  Ice clings in shady nooks down there, making strange geometric patterns in the muddy base.

Though my legs still complain on the way down I reflect that the rest of the day might be mostly driving.  It’s going to be one of those days that have been labelled “Type two fun” – god awful when it’s happening, sublime when it’s over.

Not too far down the road was a village called Henrieville.  Just as I arrived from the west, it was hard not to notice a standout butte, though its name is a mystery.  Try as I may all searches came up short but I couldn’t help but notice that on top it had a flagpole with the American flag flying.  Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to achieve that aim.

When later I research trying to find the name I stumble over a fellow photographer named Lyn Sessions who has posted pictures from just about everywhere in Utah and writes interesting prose.  Tragically, the last couple of years of her posts deal with her battle with colon cancer as well.  There are no more posts after 2021.