The drive to Bryce Canyon was beautiful, passing through mountain passes with lots of snow beside the road and views of snow-capped mountains. We also had a lovely stop in Escalante for lunch and some extra provisions.
We had wisely decided to stay in a hotel for two nights at Bryce Canyon. We’d done this to have a couple of days of comfort and showers, but it also turned out to be a good decision because Bryce Canyon’s average altitude is over 2,400 metres, it was very cold and there was still snow everywhere. There was even snow all through the camping ground!
We arrived early enough to drive into the Canyon and begin our sightseeing. Bryce and Zion are well serviced by shuttle buses, but a portion of Bryce can only be done by car.
We drove to the most southerly end, Rainbow Point, where the views were spectacular. The combination of red canyon walls, snow and pine trees was magical.
We did a short walk through the snow that took us to some lookouts. I was a bit unnerved at a couple of points as the paths had been covered by snow and we were walking on slopes quite near to sheer and abrupt edges.
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| Bristlecone Pine |
After the walk, we drove back towards the park entrance, stopping at the following lookouts:
Black Birch Canyon
Natural Bridge
Fairview Point
Paria View
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| Awwww |
All were amazing, but we liked Natural Bridge and Paria View the most.
Next morning we hopped on the Bryce Canyon Shuttle Bus at the front of our hotel and got off at the Visitor Information Centre, where we were assisted by another great ranger. She confirmed that we could link the Queens Garden and Peekaboo Trails, which our guide book rated as the two best walks in the Canyon.
We descended into the Canyon from Sunrise Point. It was a long and winding descent that passed by the mid-levels of many hoodoos. Hoodoos are tall, thin rock spires formed by erosion. They typically consist of softer rock topped by harder, less eroded rock. Bryce Canyon National Park is particularly well known for the abundance of hoodoos.
We also got to walk through a number of small arched tunnels.
Queens Garden is extremely popular and is named for a hoodoo that looks uncannily like a statue of Queen Victoria.
A little over half way through the walk the trail joins the Navajo Trail, which you can take to climb out of the Canyon. Instead of doing this straight away we took a linking trail to join the Peekaboo Trail Loop, which is 5 km long and was seriously picturesque, with views of stunning rock formations around every bend. It was also hilly, icy and slushy so you could not stop concentrating for a second.
For some reason there was an extraordinary number of French people on both trails (over 50%). The standard greeting became Hello and bonjour, which provoked smiles and a few looks of bemusement.
Part way around the Peekaboo Trail, we had gained quite a lot of height, and so had to descend back down to the Canyon only to link back up with the Navajo Trail and begin the exhausting ascent out of the Canyon.
The wonderful park ranger had strongly suggested that we ascend (not descend) by this trail and we could see why. It was incredibly steep, muddy and icy. At some points the track had transformed into an icy, sludgy bog. We pitied the people who were descending because they hadn’t had the benefit of the good advice we’d received.
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| A Stellar's Jay |
In the end, we made it to the top and then did a small section of the Rim Walk between Sunset and Sunrise Points. This is the classic walk at Bryce Canyon, because you get a great view of the Bryce Canyon Amphitheatre and its amazing collection of hundreds of hoodoos.
Bryce Canyon really packs a punch in terms of having so many closely located spectacular views. You don’t need a lot of time here to be overloaded with natural beauty.
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