9/16 Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Top Of The Rim

OMG OMG Bryce Canyon is one of the most stunning landscapes on earth.  Tectonic movement cracked the earths crust in one direction forming fins (layers of free standing stone walls) like in Arches, and then again in the opposite direction cracking those fins into chimney’s (free standing stone columns) which over 35 

Base of Hoodoos

Eye Level Hoodoos

million years of weather and erosion produced these beautiful shapes called hoodoos.  The stronger rock layers are the bulging parts while weaker layers erode faster making recesses and holes called windows.  These hoodoos are in the Bryce Amphitheater which is 12 miles long, 3 miles wide and 800 feet deep and can be viewed from numerous lookouts and trails. 

 The colors are vibrant and some appear transparent when the sun hits them just right as shown in the Navajo Trail at sunrise below.  See the tiny people on the trail on the bottom left to get an idea of the size of this place.  

Sunrise At Navajo Trail

9/16 We hiked the very challenging 5.5 mile Peek A Boo Loop over rock scrambles, and 3140 feet of elevation changes.  Only 700 feet to the bottom but the trail does hundreds of up and down up and down up and down, etc. etc. etc……. 


9/17 John hiked the 3 mile Navajo and Queen’s Garden Trails

Down, Down, Down Navajo Trail

with 1200 feet of elevation changes.    500 feet of that change is in the first half mile where the Sunrise photo above shows the top part of the trail and the other photo shows the trails switching back and forth due to how steep they are.  John is that tiny green dot on the very bottom of the trail. 

Later we drove to the end of the park road and both strolled the 1 mile Bristle Cone Loop through a fire ravaged fir forest high atop a mesa offering expansive views of the park.

Camping at Bryce Canyon Pines about 6 miles from the park is quiet and in the trees.  Many other RV parks are closer but I expect they will be more crowded.  The parks are still very busy this time of year but comfortable.  There is no way I would do this in the summer.  There is vacancy in many of the hotels we have seen near these national parks but all of the RV parks in the parks have been full for months, and most of the closest RV parks are full as well so book EARLY. 

9/18 We take a much needed "no truck day" to clean house, do some RV maintenance, laundry, and rest our weary bones.  We even talked to both kids this morning!  We did some planning for our camping trip with Zoe next week and talked about their challenges finding a house to buy or rent in White Salmon area and Jack told us about his girl and his research on graduate schools.

Four parks are enough for one trip, our eyes are starting to glaze over and our bodies are pretty tired.  We are ready to move on.

Bryce Hikes:  9.5 miles (2,371 total elevation changes up and down)