Bryce canyon was our second national park of the Utah national parks trip. The park was much smaller than I was used to, but there were still plenty of things to see/do. Bryce is a hikers national park (vs canyoneering at Zion) and most of the things you want to visit are day hikes (although some of them can be quite long for a day hike). There was only one trail that we didn’t do (or at least not all of it) out of the the list of the top hikes in the park. Next time we come, a multi-day backpacking trip on the Under the Rim trail will be on top of the list.
Our first hike of the tip was on the rim trail which, as per the name, follows the upper rim of Bryce Canyon. The views were spectacular - Bryce canyon is known for it’s Hodos, which are vertical spires of rock that form from the freezing and thawing of water that gets trapped between different layers of the rock. It’s a very interesting park from a geological perspective - in addition to spires there were numerous windows & deep canyons that are created from this same process.
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We got some great initial views of the canyon from our short hike on the first day.
Our second day involved getting up with the sun and getting some morning shots of the Hodos. We were the only ones there when we arrived, but the area filled up quickly with people wanting to get a view of the Hodos in the morning light. We stuck around for about an hour as the sun came up, it was a chilly morning but the temperature started to rise quickly as the sun came up.
Later that day we went on a longer hike called the fairyland loop. This loop was much less traveled (probably because of the distance) and took us a bit further into the northern part of the park.
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The loop hiked along the hudos and we also started to see (and identify) the Bristlecone pines that Bryce is also known for. These trees are incredible hardy and live for a very long time (more later).
It got fairly hot during the day (stark contrast to the morning) and was a fun change for us Seattlites. Overall, I give the hike 1 star - didn’t see a single fairy the whole time… :)
As we came over the rim of the fairyland loop, we saw a small herd of antelope. I was early season, so many were still without horns and had that haggard look of having just shed their winter coats.
The following day we did Navajo loop to Queens garden. This hike is the more famous one in the park and, although much shorter, has a wide variety of terrain, from deep canyons to the more open areas from the Fairyland loop. Sara joined us on this one and got the opportunity to impress Mark with her hiking abilities - hiking ahead of him for most of the hike. The hike was actually two loops that we strung together and the second half of the loop included a string of hodos that looked like queens - a bit of a stretch in my opinion, but I didn’t name them… :)
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The switchbacks, tunnels, deep canyons, and little caves to explore made Sara’s day. Exciting day for the little lady…
Our last day at Bryce was a stormy/snowy one (very cold and windy). We did a drive through the park and did a very quick hike along the Brislecone loop - which we did with quite a bit of urgency given the weather.
The oldest in Bryce was 1600 years old (more later) and the oldest found was just under 5000 years old - which is somewhere in California. It didn’t look alive when we found it, but I guess it’s still alive (at least as of last year). The tree is on Yovimpa Point and it’s very exposed, which is apparently where Brislecone pines thrive - where other’s done.
We did stop for some great pictures on the way back as the sun started to come out. There were some amazing arches that rivaled some of the ones you can find at Arch’s National park.
And that wraps up the trip! We headed out the next day and did some day hikes on our way back to the airport and onward back to Seattle.