Wilderness Wandering

October 14 through 16, 2023

We have been looking forward to this park. Many friends have told us they loved it. 

October 14

We arrived early afternoon after watching the solar eclipse. We wanted showers, so we booked a night at Ruby’s RV Park. Great showers, a laundry on premises, nice bathrooms, sinks for washing dishes, and the spaces were not too close together and have trees and shade. We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon and evening.

October 15, 2023

It was a brisk 27 degrees when we woke up.  We tried to go to church this morning, but the church in Bryce Canyon City is seasonal. It closed after Labor Day. So we went on to the park. 

Camping here is first come, first serve this time of year. We stopped in and found a nice spot in the North Campground on Loop A – RVs only. We signed up for 2 nights. The last 2 places, the bathrooms were far from our site. I made sure we are close to the bathroom this time. And the bathrooms have flush toilets, electric outlets AND HOT WATER! What a treat! 

The VC was crowded. We got our passport stamp including a special eclipse one and took our photo in front of the VC. 

Bryce Canyon has a shuttle system. The park is relatively small compared to others in UT, and most of the attractions are off the one main road, so parking is hard to come by. We parked Calypso and boarded the shuttle to the Sunrise trailhead.

As you drive into the park, pretty much all you see are pine trees. We got off the shuttle snd walked over to the rim and WOW!! The amphitheater, as they call it, is in front and below you.

It takes your breath away! Bryce Canyon is the world’s largest collection of hoodoos. Hoodoos are very cool weathered sandstone formations formed by alternating cycles of freezing and thawing causing cracks in the rock and then melting water washes the debris away and you’re left with hoodoos. The colors and formations are spectacular! There are many 1000s of them – all shapes and sizes. The color variations blow you away!

We did a combination hike of 8 miles. It included The Queen’s Garden, Peekaboo Loop and Navajo Loop. It is labeled as strenuous. I guess what makes it strenuous is the elevation changes. We gained 1200 feet in elevation. We started on the rim and went down among the hoodoos and up and back down quite a few times. I really liked bring able to get down to the floor and walk along the hoodoos. You can actually see the textures of the rocks.

I also really enjoyed that this park has a lot of trees even among the hoodoos. There are so many red rocks red rocks and green trees that the song “It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas” ran in my head.

Queen’s Garden was fairly crowded. Peekaboo Loop was quieter. The we finished on Navajo Loop which was crowded again.

After the hike, we boarded the shuttle and took it to two observation points and also stopped at the Bryce Lodge and had a beer. In UT, you can buy a beer, but if you want more than 1, you have to order some food too! The lodge is fairly historic, but not as magnificent as other NP lodges I’ve been to. It is built in a rustic style that fits well with its surroundings.

October 16

It didn’t get as cold last night. We slept in and had some nice warm steel cut oats for breakfast. We drove Calypso to the end of the scenic drive and did the Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point scenic stops as well as the 1 mile Bristlecone Loop. Bristlecone pines are such cool weird trees. Gorgeous scenery every where you look.

After lunch, we drove to the other end of the park and did the 2 mile Mossy Cave hike. It is a streamside walk to a mossy grotto. The stream was pretty. The bed of the stream was pink sandstone and the water was very clear. The cave wasn’t much. But there were pictures of the cave in winter with huge icicles and that looked pretty cool.

We splurged and went to dinner at the lodge. We had an excellent fish fry. We hadn’t had one since we left Wisconsin. 

After dinner, we decided to return to one of the scenic viewpoints to watch sunset and stay and stargaze.

We didn’t allow for the mountains blocking the sun, and missed sunset. But, we made the best of it. We set up our camp chairs and Tim made Old Fashioneds and we sat and waited for the stars to come out. The Milky Way was right above us. The number of stars and clarity of the sky in these Dark Sky parks is truly spectacular! We returned to the campground and someone was in our spot. I got out and let him know we had this spot until the AM. The man apologized and said in the dark, he hasn’t seen our stuff, and he left. We had a good night’s sleep.

Bryce Canyon did not disappoint! We both loved this park. It lived up to the hype. I would like to come back in winter to see the hoodoos with snow on them.