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Bryce Canyon

Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon

7.19.04

We reached Red Canyon (right before Bryce Canyon) around 5pm, just as the late afternoon sun lit up the dark brick-red spires (called hoodoos) along the sides of the road. We set up camp across the valley from these formations, and then took a short hike up among them on the Pink Ledges Trail. It is surprising that any rocks in Red or Bryce Canyons are still standing since they seem to consist of just red earth piled up with small rocks in it. The chess-piece-like towers they form should have crumbled a long time ago.

We took showers at the camp and had beans and corn for dinner. The evening got cold quickly, which was nice after the heat of Arches. The Bryce Canyon area is also one of the places with the best visibility in the country, and we could see many stars through the roof of our tent.

7.20.04

We are sitting at the terrace of the camp store near Bryce Canyon Visitor Center, enjoying well-deserved hot dogs, teriyaki beef jerky and hot chocolate for lunch. There is a little ground squirrel that comes by sniffing for food every few minutes, but all he gets time and again is our smelly feet, poor guy.

Today is our first full day in Bryce Canyon National Park. We got a bit of a late start because we took our sweet time getting ready and packing up, but we were not punished too badly for it as Bryce Canyon is a lot cooler than Arches. In fact, we had sun in the morning, but showers started at noon, and lightening and thunder joined in soon after that. That was quite refreshing.

We did another long hike today. The Riggs Spring Trail took off from the top of pink spired cliffs and descended gently along a steep slope with views of the green and pink canyon and the larger region. Then it continued downward through lower lying forests of nice smelling pine and aspen. The one downside was bugs. Many bugs! They were not mosquitoes but the annoying kind that does everything possible to get into one's eyes, nose and mouth. Consequently we did much swatting and less talking. We did get nice views of the cliffs above, getting a different perspective than from the parking lot where we started.

The turnaround point was a campsite in the midst of a lovely meadow. The total descent and subsequent ascent of around 1600 feet allowed us to see several different climates alternating between pine, fir and aspen trees, meadows of field flowers and hillsides with desert plants. We also saw a number of critters: chipmunks, lizards and short-horned lizards (which are shaped like toads but have a short tail and a spiky body). It was a hard steep climb back up. Between the slope and the 9000-ft elevation, we (some more than others!) were huffing and puffing. We were glad when the weather became cloudy and we got a few drops of rain.

All in all we did the whole 9 miles in under 3.5 hours. It was a pretty hike the whole way, but was not as scenic as some others we had done. However, we did stop at a few viewing areas on our drive back to the visitor center area, and those were amazing. We are excited to do a couple of short hikes tomorrow that will include Inspiration Point, the postcard spot of the park. Before then though, we will hike out 3 miles into the backcountry tonight, spend the night there and come back in the morning. The stars through the top of our tent last night were beautiful, so we're hoping to fall asleep that way tonight too.

7.21.04

Last night we hiked 3 miles, mostly down, with our packs to reach a small private campground by a stream. The walk was very pretty. The main two scenic areas were what we termed the sweet shop and Hat Shop (already so named by others before us). The sweet shop was a group of hoodoo formations changing between white and various shades of pink that one would find in a pastry shop. Hat Shop is very aptly named for it is a series of dark-brick colored hoodoo towers, narrowing toward the top, with a large light colored rock sitting on top of each one like a hat in a hat shop. These formations looked very much like Gaudi's creations - kind of funny. We continued on down. In all, the descent was around 1300 feet. We read a while at our campsite, ate and watched the stars.

The next morning, today, we woke around 7:30 and hiked out of the valley where we were camped. This was our first hike with full backpacks, and were sufficiently tired when we reached the top of the canyon. On our way back to the main park area, the roadside viewpoints were well worth a stop as each offers a different stunning view of the hoodoos. It turns out you can see Inspiration Point from a viewing area near the road, as opposed to a trail, but it is still breathtaking.

Our next hike was a short 1.3 mi hike down and up the Navajo Trail, the most popular and crowded trail in the park. The Navajo trail also begins at the rim and descended 900' (thus making it particularly sharp). The views are absolutely stunning. Not only did we see a ton of great rock formations, but we also walked through our first slot canyon (nicknamed 'Wall Street'). A slot canyon is a very narrow canyon that is usually formed by two rock fins. A few tall tree trunks wedged themselves right between the canyon walls, making for impressive viewing. The quick descent was followed by an equally quick ascent, and 45 minutes later we emerged from the canyon with some incredible photographs and several fantastic scenes that were too amazing to capture on film.

We rested a few hours and then rode horses down into the Queen's Garden Canyon and Fairyland area of the park. This was Iva's first time on a horse, which made the trip extra fun. The vistas were pretty, but we were much more preoccupied with the horses as they wound their way up and down the narrow switchbacks. We had a bit of fun getting the horses to trot a few times and Iva almost got bounced off her saddle. The trip was led by a local cowboy who was decidedly unfunny (in fact he continued to tell really bad jokes throughout the 2-hour trip).

More pictures at Ofoto