Another weekend away - Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks

A couple weeks ago, Cory and I took a weekend away to explore another one of Utah's famous national parks. This time it was Bryce Canyon, which is about an hour an a half further than Zion. We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up our tent outside the park in a sprinkle of rain. I was a little thrown off by our campsite because, although we had reserved a spot, it was sort of a first-come, first-served type of deal, nothing was numbered, there was only one potable water spout for the entire campground and two outhouses served everyone as well. It was all run out of a Cheveron station. Very strange.

Anyway ... we got set up, then decided to drive into Bryce Canyon National Park. It is a disorienting park because the entrance is at the north end, and you drive south to the furthest point in the park. It's a relatively small park - only about 18 miles from one end of the road to the other. The main portion of Bryce is serviced by a shuttle bus, but the rest of it can only be reached, but car, so we drove to the southernmost point - Rainbow Point - and began to make our way back north, stopping at every pull-off point along the way.

Bryce is at a much higher altitude than the other parks of similar structure (Zion, Grand Canyon), and everyone warned me to dress in layers because I would be cold, but I was surprisingly comfortable. I was also pre-warned that this was no Zion, and I agree with that as well. It took me awhile to realize that the reason why most national parks are spectacular is because you can look out at what makes them so fantastic; you are surrounded by the park's beauty. At Bryce, you stand on what makes Bryce so famous. If look out in the distance, you just see land and even small towns. So when we stood at Rainbow Point and other look-outs the first day, I wasn't all that impressed. It was beautiful - yes - but not spectacular.

There isn't a lot of hiking in the southern portion of Bryce Canyon National Park (though we do plan to return next summer to hike for a few days below the rim, a trail that winds all over the souther part of the park), so we sort of did the touristy thing, pulling off to take pictures of the delicate rock features along the road. I thought the natural arch was pretty cool, but I would have liked to have hiked below it and see it from below.

That night we got a touch of soothing rain, which sounded so relaxing tapping on the outside of our tent, but by the morning it was dry and the sun was out.

We got up and caught the shuttle bus and headed to Bryce's most famous point of interest: the Amphitheater. We rode the shuttle to the southernmost stop (Bryce Point) and began our day of hoodoo viewing. The hoodoos - the orange rock features that stick up like otherworldly creatures - are actually quite stunning. Very unusual and like anything I've ever seen before. We rode the shuttle from stop to stop, plotting our course for the afternoon's hike and taking an array of photos. We stopped to eat our picnic lunch at the Bryce Lodge, then headed toward Sunrise Point to begin our hike.

While most people drop down onto the Navajo Trail or make it below the rim just a couple hundred feet before realizing they'll have to hike back out, we headed in with full gusto. An afternoon storm was coming in, and lots of people rushed out while we just pulled on our ponchos for a few minutes of rain.

Being at the bottom of Bryce Canyon among the hoodoos is a lot different than being on top looking at them. In fact, my entire perception of the park changed once we had left the rim. (You can read more about this in my Kaleidoscopic Wandering post.) We wander thrugh a good portion of the Queens Garden Trail (the highlight of which was probably the fantastic cairn garden we happened upon), then bypassed the Navajo Trail and headed to the Peekaboo Loop Trail. This 3-mile trail was definitely a moderate hike, with lots of uphill and downhill. Once we hiked onto the trail and were facing the park to the west, we were completely surrounded by the hoodoos. It was absolutely stunning. The trail continues to meander through arches carved into the rock and into shaded areas where lone bristlecone pines grew. Cory took some really gorgeous photos of this hike.

We finally made it back to the Navajo Trail, the most popular trail in the park because people can walk through the hoodoos in an area called Wall Street. Basically the hoodoos are so close together that you can barely see the sky. I will admit, it was a very cool site, unfortunately there were a million and a half people there, so some of the grandeur of the occasion was sucked away by the masses. Nonetheless, it was fun to walk through the hoodoos and up the switchbacks (which we found surprisingly not steep at all - other people were truly huffing and puffing, though).

I'm glad we took the time to walk our seven miles through the Amphitheater. I think Bryce Canyon, while a spectacular park, is not fully enjoyed until leaving the rim.

We decided to take a different route home, which led us to Cedar Breaks National Monument, a little-known, under-visited beauty also located in Utah. Read more about Cedar Breaks in this post on Kaleidoscopic Wandering, but suffice to say that I agree with the statement that, if it was located anywhere else, Cedar Breaks would be considered a natural wonder. It's a small park and we didn't spend much time there, but at more than 10,000 feet in elevation, it was a refreshing stop before heading back to the Las Vegas heat.

And ... though the camping stuff is unpacked once again, the summer is still filled with exploration and wonder. Check back for upcoming trips to Great Basin Natonal Park and Burning Man. Not to mention our usual array of Las Vegas fun and interspersed craziness. Gotta love life!

Canyons and cliff faces,

JoAnna