Stop 13: Bryce Canyon City, UT (Bryce Canyon National Park)

Kristen was a little nervous about going through the Zion / Mt. Carmel Tunnel but we managed to get through it just fine. The drive up to Bryce was a short one, about 85 miles so we had to kill some time along the way. We stopped at an Indian trading post on Hwy 12 just after we'd turned off Hwy 89.

For years, Kristen has been telling me that she wanted a watch with a silver and turquoise band. The only problem has been that, to my knowledge, she's never seen one that she liked (and we've done a lot of looking). With those odds stacked against me, I think that it's understandable that I never picked one out for her myself. At any rate, this Indian trading post had exactly what she's been looking for. Obviously, we bought it. We'll probably want to replace the actual watch piece of it when we get home but the band is perfect.

Our site is spacious and wooded and we're very happy with it. It's been cold here, getting close to freezing on both of the first 2 nights. Night 3 is supposed to get down to 28 and light snow is forecast for the early hours of the morning. The days have been in the 50's and 60's and we've been assured that the snow will disappear before we leave.

Our site (no, I'm not regressing to doing a daily trailer picture)

We took it easy on our first afternoon and went for a good hike on our first full day here. We got an early start to beat the crowds and assure ourselves of a parking place and go hiking among the hoodoos. We hiked down into the canyon from Sunset Point (a 600' drop in elevation), hiked the Navajo Loop, and climbed back out of the canyon at Sunrise Point. That part of the hike alone was 2.2 miles but side hikes along the way and the hike back along the rim from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point and the hike to the Lodge for lunch got us up to about 3.5 miles.

Starting down into the canyon.

Lots of switchbacks on the steep descent.

Looking up through the rocks.

Looking back up at the switchbacks.

A short side-hike led to Two Bridges.

Kristen, starting back up the trail.

That's me under a big overhang. They must not be too worried about it falling - there's a bench under the overhang.

On the way back up, we caught site of our starting point.

Our other side-hike was to an area called Queens Garden. It takes its name from this rock that looks like Queen Victoria (sorry that it's so blurry).

3 trails come together here. We've just completed the 1.4 mile portion and the Queens Garden Trail (which I'm standing on to take this photo). The .8 mile piece remains.

Looking at some of the climb ahead of us.

We've made it out of the canyon. Looking across at Sunset Point from Sunrise Point.

That's Queen Victoria again (right in the middle).

That's that point where the trails meet (you can see the sign and the doorway where Kristen had her picture taken).

With the hike completed, we headed over to the dining room at the Bryce Canyon Lodge. We stayed here a couple of visits back and found the dinning room to be better than most of the National Park Lodges.

Bryce Canyon Lodge.

On our 2nd (and last) full day here we head a few miles West to a part of the Dixie National Forrest called Red Canyon. We remembered seeing something about Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch having something to do with Red Canyon and we wanted to investigate.

Apparently, Butch grew up in the area and returned on occasion with his gang but that's about the extent of the relationship.

With that resolved, we hiked some of the trails in Red Canyon.

Our next stop was to the East of Bryce at an area called Mossy Cave. Mossy Cave is up another hoodoo filled canyon.

The muddy river that flows down the canyon (narrow but fast, it carries a of of water) is interesting in that it is man made.

That's not a path - that's a muddy river.

There's a muddy waterfall.

Mossy Cave - in the Winter, this cave is completely filled with ice (the dripping water freezes).

Muddy waterfall and muddy river.

With the cold front moving in creating wind gusts up to 50 MPH, we decided to run down the hill to see how tropical it was in Tropic, UT (not very) and then we called it a day.

-JC-