Bryce Canyon, Utah

May 10, 2016

We left Hurricane, Utah at around 9:30 today and are heading for Bryce Canyon National Park. We arrived at around 12:30 and, since you can’t make a reservation to stay in the park (they only take walk ups), we parked the RV and drove around the two campgrounds that our rig would fit trying to find a site. We weren’t happy with any of the sites and they charge $30 for no hookups. So we drove right outside the park and got a site with full hookups at Ruby’s Inn for $43.95.

Cool bridge we had to pass under

Looking forward to riding on that bike path

After we settled in and ate lunch, we headed to the Visitor’s Center and caught the tail end of the orientation film on the park. Bryce Canyon NP is another small park and very easy to do in one day.

We already knew what trail we wanted to take so we got in the jeep and drove to Sunset Point. From there, we did a portion of the Navajo Loop trail, then tacked on the Queens Garden Trail and a portion of the Rim Trail. The Hoodoos, tall skinny spires of rock produced primarily by ice wedgeing, are spectacular to see. Every turn on the trail, opened up more amazing views. We stayed until sunset and then walked back to the jeep for the ride back to the campground.

Navajo Loop

 The top of the Navajo Trail Loop

The switchback trail down into Bryce Canyon

 Welcome to HooDoo land

Trail tunnel cut through the hoodoos

Looked like a castle in some places

The Queens Garden

The Queen Victoria hoodoo

A close up of the queen

The Rim trail

We loved walking through this fantasy land

 We spotted some pronghorn antelope on the drive back to the campground.

It was very hard to get a good picture of them.

May 11, 2016

Went to the Bryce Canyon Public Library this morning to pay some bills. It’s the only reliable wifi in the area. Then we took the scenic drive to all of the lookout points in Bryce Canyon starting with Rainbow Point at the very end of the drive and working our way back stopping at 9 lookouts. Our favorite view was of the Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge

 The Aquarius Plateau is visible in the upper left in the photo below, across Bryce canyon, 30 miles away. 

We headed back to the RV for lunch and then got on our bikes to ride on the Dixie National Forest bike trail to Red Canyon. From where we parked, it was a 6 mile ride one way to the Dixie National Forest Visitors Center. It was mostly downhill to the Center. So you know what that means…the ride back was a bit of a struggle, especially at high altitude. The trail actually runs for miles and we could’ve gotten on it at Bryce Canyon. Not exactly sure how many miles it covers but it was a great trail…off the road and through the forest. Passed lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

The bath path looked like a regular roadway

with street signs warning of twists and grades.

On the right is the tunnel we passed through on the way to Bryce Canyon

The story of the Red Canyon Tunnels

Great views of the Red Rocks from the bike path

We were pretty wiped out when we got back to the RV so after showers we made dinner, did laundry and made a reservation for Capital Reef…our next destination.