Bryce Canyon National Park

Hi everyone from Bryce Canyon National Park!

We set off around 7.30am today and used our Zion permit one last time. We took the eastern road this time and drove through the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel. This tunnel was built in 1930 and was pretty cool. It was around 1.8 km long and every now and then had “windows” created in the rock so you could see out. On the other side of it, we parked and did the Canyon Overlook trail which took us around 30 minutes return. We were rewarded with beautiful sunny morning views, an interesting section on a small wooden bridge around a cave, and a mountain goat chewing away on some grass as we walked past.

Once back in the car, I drove the remaining 1.5 hours to Bryce Canyon. We saw some more mountain goats. En route the scenery and temperature changed dramatically. We went from an elevation of around 1200m above sea level at Zion to an elevation of around 2800m above sea level at Bryce. The scenery became snowy fields, and the temperature got as low as 1 degree Celsius at one point. Once we arrived in Bryce Canyon City (city is an exaggeration – it’s a very small town!) it was beautiful and sunny and about 6 degrees. We walked into the hotel lobby and had a really bizarre experience with the girl behind the check in desk refusing to hold our bags in the hotel until we could check in later, despite me messaging in advance advising we would be arriving at 11am and the hotel replying they could store our bags. She was rude, it wasn’t a great start!

With that behind us, we got ready and caught the free shuttle bus from directly outside of our hotel into Bryce Canyon National Park. The park is so named after Ebeneezer Bryce, a Mormon settler who arrived here in the 1870s. He and his wife pioneered 12 towns in their time, and Bryce Canyon was one area they settled in for a while. They were taken aback by the beauty of the canyon and spread the word about it, so people started calling it Bryce Canyon.

The whole vibe here when compared to Zion is a lot less crowded and a lot more chilled out. Plenty of space on all the buses, friendly drivers, no queuing etc. Our driver told us that the park is pretty small here at just 5 miles wide and 18 miles long (about 9km wide and 30km long). Overnight on 200 nights of the year the park freezes at night, and the stars here are meant to be magnificent as there are no lights in the park at night (we are going to check them out tomorrow!). This year is much snowier than usual for April, with Rainbow Point having received 160 inches of snow this season.

We exited the bus at the visitor centre where we watched a short movie about the park. The reason Bryce Canyon is famous is due to it having the highest concentration of hoodoos in the world. Hoodoos are vertical pinnacles of weathered rock. They were created by sediment settling in a lake here when it existed millions of years ago. Throughout the year these days they change shape and size slightly, as snow and rain freezes in the cracks of the hoodoos overnight on many nights of the year and then meltd. As well as Ebeneezer Bryce being impressed with the area, a man named JW Humphrey came here in 1915 and loved it so much that he began campaigning for it to be protected and in 1923 it was designated as a national monument.

After the video, we caught another shuttle to Sunset Point. Along the way we saw lots of prairie dogs having fun in the snow. These look nothing like dogs, and I would describe them as a mix between a meerkat, a beaver and a squirrel. We left the bus and walked towards the lookout. We were taken aback with how snowy everything was, and how silent it was when we stopped walking. As much as Zion was magnificent, it was so nice walking around with less people and in a quieter environment.

We reached the viewpoint for the canyon, and wow! It is absolutely stunning here. We sat for a while and ate our food taking it all in. Then we walked a bit of the snowy rim trail. We used our cleats/crampons that we bought in advance that attach to our shoes. They work like footy boots and give you traction in the snow. We then descended via the Queen’s Garden trail for a 1.5 hour hike. There was quite a high concentration of people here as a few other trails are closed at the moment due to the snow. But we still had a good time despite some Americans thinking they need to speak like they’re at a football match rather than standing next to their family member – lol. We felt like we were on the ‘Thunder Mountain’ ride at Disneyland – the hoodoos were so impressive, some a red colour and others a white/beige colour. We enjoyed some little tunnels created through the rock, and as we descended further the landscape changed from a desert full of hoodoos with occasional snow to a full on alpine floor of the canyon. We sat for a while here and watched a very cute squirrel moving around. It let me go right up to it and stare at it, I mustn’t have made he or she feel scared!! At the end of the trail we saw the hoodoo the hike was named after which looks like Queen Victoria. It’s the white top section on a mostly red hoodoo in my photos.

Once back at the top we were pretty happy with ourselves. Our muscles are a little sore from Angel’s Landing yesterday and we are at a pretty high elevation. We did really well considering! The funny thing is that we saw quite a few people from the Angel’s Landing hike yesterday on the trail we did today. Today’s trail was lots muddier and icier though!!

We then caught the shuttle back and checked in to our hotel. After our last hotel which was pretty gross to say the least, this one is really comfortable, spacious and clean. It’s on the site of one of the original lodges built in the area in 1916 by a man named Reuben (Ruby) Syrett and his wife Minnie. They pioneered the tourism industry here by starting up the lodge and offering tours to the canyon.

I’ll be up tonight watching Collingwood play at 1am. The hotel is so comfortable that I’ve decided to stay up or get up for it, and then have a sleep in. Go pies!!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox