Welcome back to another series I’m reviving from the back burner: our Western US road trip from last summer. If you’re reading through this series, I hope it provides some escape and a chance for armchair travel.
If you haven’t read the previous posts about our first day driving to Lake Mead, our day at Zion National Park, and our day trip to the Grand Canyon, read those first!
This post is about our visit to Bryce Canyon. We got up at sunrise again (a theme from the trip), because as soon as the sun hit the campsite, it was unbearably hot. We decided to drive around Quail Creek State Park, where we had been camping, because we already there! It’s quite a small park, but the reservoir lake was really pretty and the hills were pretty impressive
On the way out of the park to the highway, you get this view of these cool mountains, which remind me of the Quaraing on the Isle of Skye. Just another example of how everywhere in southern Utah has unbelievable geography.
We actually drove through Zion National Park on our way out, which let us see the park in the morning and go to the Eastern part of the park along Highway 9. First we did the scenic drive to Zion.
Then, because we had the National Parks pass, we drove through. When we went two days before, we only really went to the main part of the park, so most of what we saw was new.
The eastern part of the park looks so different. I think if I saw these pictures, I would assume it was in a completely part of Utah or in a different state!
This mountain especially looks like it could be in South Dakota or something!
Then we left the park and headed towards Bryce Canyon National Park!
The scenery changed a lot during the drive.
Then we saw signs that we were getting closer!
Finally, we arrived! We went to the visitors center first. We got maps, talked to a ranger about hiking and what routes we should take, and then we got started! Since it was still before lunchtime, we decided to go on a short hike first thing. We started at the iconic Sunset Point and went on the Navajo Loop Trail.
The trek down into the bottom on the canyon was super steep. We could already tell the way back up was going to be tough, especially in the heat.
I was really surprised by how many trees there were between the spires, but the park is at about 9,000 feet of elevation.
Deeper into the canyon, it was a lot more forest-like, but still really arid and dry. I’m not sure I had ever seen anything like it. It felt like the desert but then it was also reasonably lush.
We then started the hike back up to the rim.
The view from the top vs. from the bottom.
Once we got to the top, though, we were rewarded with some pretty spectacular views. I think one of the things that makes Bryce so stunning is the contrast of the bright orange of the rock and the bright green trees and the bright blue sky.
Not to mention the insane rock formations.
Then we made it back to the little rest area near the top of the hike. We got out our packed sandwiches and stuff for lunch. We brought our water bladder things on the hike, which carried a couple liters of water, but we were still chugging cold water from the water fountain during lunch.
From there, we got in the car and headed towards Bryce Point, which is at the southernmost tip of the park. On the way there, we passed a fire that was happening not far from the road! We saw a lot of fires on this trip, which were mostly started by lightning. Because Utah is more sparsely populated that other states that have lots of fires, like California, when fires start, they often let them burn in a controlled area to keep too much foliage from building up. That prevents much worse fires. It was interesting learning about this – I haven’t ever lived anywhere where fires are a concern or a normal event. It was also the first time I had ever seen a fire like this in person.
The view from this part of the park is really different. You can really see the scale of the park – you can’t even see the main part of the canyon where were were hiking earlier.
From Bryce Point, we turned around and headed back and stopped at every overlook we passed.
Around this time, I started to feel headachey, a bit weak, and kind of sick. I think I had a bit of heat/sun stroke. I took a 10-minute rest in the car with the air conditioning blasting and had some more water. I started to feel a bit better. I had been drinking water, wearing a hat and short sleeves, and had eaten, but still the sun was catching up with me.
After a while, we were able to continue and see the rest of this part of the park.
This viewpoint was one of my favorites. There was a short hike down to get there and then there was this incredible panoramic view! We did have another little drama on our way here. When we parked the car, we realized there was a little gecko trapped in the back of the car, in the rear window area. We tried to rescue him, and I ended up accidentally hitting it, which seemed to kill him. I was so upset, James had to take it out of the car and I felt so, so guilty. But then we distracted ourselves with the views. We were a lot more careful about leaving the doors open from then on.
After that, we made a pit stop at the visitors center again to get some water and go to the bathroom. While we were heading out, there was a ranger with a telescope. She had it set up so we could see the solar flares that were going on. I think the smoke from the fire was making it so you could see the flares without actually going blind.
Then we left the park and headed to Kodachrome Basin State Park, which is where we were camping that night. It was actually not that far from Bryce Canyon – only about a 30 minute drive from visitor center to visitor center!
Like the rest of the state, there was no shortage of interesting formations on the way.
Eventually, we made it! It had been a long day, so we were really looking forward to
These were some of the views from our campsite! We were nestled in the middle of these crazy rocks and we had quite a lot of privacy.
The one thing I need to say is that this was one of the nicest campsites we stayed at. First, they had running water. Big win! Second, and more importantly, they had the nicest bathrooms and showers we used the entire trip, including the hotels we stayed at. They had clearly been renovated recently. They also had an outdoor sink where you could wash dishes. The downside was they had a lot of bees around. Like, a lot!
We also found a Black Widow spider on the picnic table at dusk, so we ended up basically staying in the tent or as far away from the table as possible. My side of the tent directly faced the table, and I felt like I was sleeping right next to the spider!
After dinner, it got dark and then like every night the Milky Way was visible about 30 minutes after sunset. I set up my tripod and took some long exposure pictures of the stars. The first pictures are just the raw images.
I also lightly edited some of the pictures, and this is how they came out.
Also, right before we went to sleep, when we were cleaning up, we found this guy! I don’t have any close-up pictures, but it was HUGE! Later, we used the pictures to identify it as a Jerusalem cricket.
Because it was so warm at night and we knew it was never going to rain, we slept with the rain fly off. Since most of the tent was made of mesh, we could see the Milky Way from inside the tent!
Knowing we were surrounded by poisonous spiders, giant, evil “crickets”, and swarms of bees, we managed to fall asleep (knowing there was no chance in hell we were getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom…).
Check out the next post about our next stop: Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument!
