Bryce Canyon National Park

We weren’t originally planning to visit Bryce Canyon National Park this year because we would then be backtracking for the reservations we had at Zion National Park right before heading east to North Carolina. Located at the top of the Grand Staircase, Bryce is also at 8,000 feet elevation and still below freezing most nights during Spring and some of their trails do not open until the Summer.

However, 4 weeks prior we had been able to snag appointments in the nearby town of Panguitch, UT for our first dose of the Moderna vaccine and wanted to be close for our second. So north on US89 we went and ended up in a great campsite on Tom’s Best Spring Road in the Dixie National Forest for 10 days. We got our 2nd “Fauci Ouchies” on a Monday, got snowed in on Tuesday while our immune systems worked their magic, and by Wednesday started making the 15-minute drive to either Bryce or Red Canyon for our almost daily after work hikes.

Compared to many National Parks, Bryce Canyon NP is relatively small. But, it has the largest grouping of hoodoos in the world in its breathtakingly beautiful amphitheater. As soon as we were settled into our campsite on Sunday, we drove the 36-mile round trip scenic drive which has multiple viewpoints down into the amphitheater. We’ve found that we like to get the lay of the land before planning when and where we will hike.

These hoodoos are mainly the result of mechanical weathering by freeze/thaw cycles. On roughly 200 nights per year, nighttime temperatures at Bryce fall below freezing and then rise above freezing during the day. When water that seeps into the rock freezes, it expands, breaking the rock (why trails are closed Fall-Spring). The limestone pinnacles that are left standing are sections fortified with magnesium that can better withstand erosion than the softer rock around them.

Of course, I dragged my feverish body out to take a couple photos of the hoodoos in the snow. It was worth it.

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Our favorite hike through the hoodoos was the Peekaboo Loop (clockwise) that we reached by taking the Navajo trail down and back up. The Wall Street section of the trail was still seasonally closed, which would have made this hike even better.

Another short trail we did down into Bryce’s amphitheater was Queen’s Garden and then back up the Navajo Trail.

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On Saturday, we tackled the 8-mile Fairyland Loop trail in Bryce which has its own small parking lot away from the main amphitheater and was, therefore, a lot less busy.

Also on Scenic UT12 and adjacent to Bryce is Red Canyon. Red Canyon is probably best known/photographed for its double arches that cross the highway. There are several short trails we did near the Red Canyon Visitor Center.

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And on our Sunday in the area, we left our comfort zone and mountain biking abilities behind and somehow lived to tell the tale. We parked our truck at the lower Thunder Mountain trailhead in Red Canyon and biked the 5 paved miles uphill to our conveniently located campsite for lunch and a water refill. After that “warmup”, biked a 2-mile dirt road to the upper trailhead where we started 4 miles of manageable rollercoaster hills, then 2 steep miles of unmanageable switchback madness that was even difficult to walk my bike down, and finished it off with 2 miles of fast but mostly straight downhill back to our truck. Apparently, there is a Disney World ride named after this trail. Michael is in the first picture of the gallery!

We loved Bryce Canyon country and will have to return to this otherworldly area to visit Cedar Breaks (also a hoodoo amphitheater), Escalante (more slot canyons), and Kodachrome Basin State Park. But for now, we next headed to Zion NP for the finale of both our first visits to the Southwest.