May 16 – To Bryce Canyon National Park

Today we did the 3 hour drive west and south to Bryce Canyon.

Click for a large map of the route

Heading west we climbed from 6700 feet to about 8300 feet, high enough to see some snow again.

Then we had a long downhill to around 6000 feet to meet Highway 62. Travelling on 62 we went down a long wide valley.

On turning west again the road on the GPS looked kind of wiggly so I was worried that we would have some steep climbing but it was just following a narrow river valley. One wall had a very distinct boundary with a kind of rock we had not seen before.

Highway 89 was wide open and not worth a picture. After we turned back east onto Highway 12 we passed through Red Canyon and two tunnels. We will be back here to do some hiking.

Then across the top of the plateau to our campground just outside the park entrance.

The campground is a bit pricey and definitely lacking in ambiance but it is very close to the park. We are here for 12 days.

We went to the visitor’s center, watched the park movie and then drove to one of the viewpoints.

We had a lot of company. We heard large groups of Chinese, Japanese and French.

Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon. It is a plateau with the eastern edge eroding into a large number of hoodoos.

We started at Sunset Point and walked the half mile along the rim to Sunrise Point and back. I can see that we are going to be taking a LOT of pictures while we are here.

The sun came out part way through our walk.

Jennie is going to go crazy seeing faces and animals everywhere.

The Navajo Trail starts at Sunset Point. All the trails start going down, unlike at the other places we have been this trip. That means a long climb back up at the end.

The Navajo Trail is usually a loop that goes through a narrow slot called Wall Street.

Wall Street is the dark part to the left in the picture above. You then have to climb the switchbacks in the lower right. Unfortunately each spring they seem to get some rock falls in the narrow section so it is closed for now.

They have horse back trails as well. I don’t think we will try those.

We can’t wait to get down there on some hikes.

As I was trying to figure what we were going to do tomorrow, there were some interesting clouds in the sky at sunset.