Bryce UT

Located at the 8000+ foot elevation is the “Bryce Canyon National Park”, this park is known for the dramatic scenery of its canyons.  We decided to spend a couple of days in the park as we made our way to Moab for our next lengthy stay and are we ever glad we did.

When we were in Kanab, we quickly visited the park to see how much snow there was because we were going to be coming back in a few days to spend more time there. We were surprised to see snow as deep as 4 feet along the roads. In fact, the upper section of the road was closed because it had not melted yet. Bryce is something to see when there is snow in the canyon, and we were lucky enough to see it this way.

We moved the RV to the “Riverside Ranch RV Resort” (https://www.theriversideranch.com) in Hatch Utah which is about 30 minutes from the park. The resort sits on a river that was rising each day due to the snowmelt from the mountains. In fact, while we were there, they had to close the tent camping section of the resort because the river had overflowed the banks and was still rising the day we left.

We spent the second day in the park hiking the rim trail. Our goal was to hike the trail from top to bottom going along the rim. We were worried about how much snow there would be based on our earlier visit. The day was warm and as we entered the park, we immediately noticed much of the snow was gone. The road had been opened almost all the way through the park and there was water flowing down the streams in almost every area.

We drove up to “Inspiration” point and parked the toad. We loaded up our packs with water, lunch and power snacks and off we went. The views were spectacular as far as the eye could see. We started hiking down the trail because well, we are older and going up did not sound like fun. So off we went. We immediately noticed that every time we stopped to take pictures, the canyons looked different based on the angle we were at. This changing view continued all the way until we hit the bottom of the rim and I found it to be quite interesting.

As we were going down the rim trail, we pulled off the trail and stopped by the Bryce Canyon Lodge. This is an old-time lodge as you would expect and the feeling of a majestic lodge comes through right to the smells. We found in the main dining room pictures and stories of each picture that started to tell the story of Bryce from the very beginning to the completion of the lodge and other facilities.

The stories are quite interesting to read as they take you back to another time. Most people do not know this, but the railroad actually built the lodge to get people to travel on the trains. There is even an original advertisement from New York city offering different trips to Bryce and back via railroad and bus with five days accommodation for a family of four for a grand total of $200. Amazing when you think about it.

After the visit to the lodge, it was back on the Rim Trail to continue our downward journey. We made it to the bottom and people watched for a while. We also watched the horseback (or muleback) riders descend into the canyon in a not so smooth manner. Seems some of the mules decided they were not ready start their season yet. Eventually they got them going but not before several of us had a good laugh.

Bryce offers a bus system like Zion but not quite as many buses. By the time the bus came there were too many people, so we decided to hike down to the visitors center and then catch the bus to the highest point on the rim that was open. Funny thing is we walked the bike trail and it was gorgeous out and we arrived at the visitors center the same time as the bus we tried to get on.

At the visitors center we talked with the rangers and asked if the rim trail from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point was open. They said it just opened but there was still snow in the area. We jumped on the next upward bus and went to Bryce Point. This is one of the highest points on the trail and you can take some amazing pictures here. We did the selfie thing and started “down” the trail to get back to our car. The first thing we noticed is there is a lot of “up” before going down. This is a chore at 8500ft so we made sure and stayed hydrated. Again, different views of the canyon make up different impressions as you travel along.

By the time we were done it was early evening. We noticed the same thing that happened in Zion, most people had left for the day, and you had free reign over anything you wanted. Also, the setting sun casts shadows in the canyon and the views change by the hour.

We did not hike down into the canyon because we did not feel we were ready for a hike like that yet. We will visit again and maybe bring our kids and see if we can do the rim-to-rim trail through the canyon. Going down does not look too bad but coming up looked strenuous.

Next stop is Moab!