Day 10 – June 19, 2016
Mileage – 76,127
Outside Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon, like Rocky Mountain National Park, was more than we had hoped for. Our expectations from our last visit were low, but we (Jenney and Kevin) quickly realized we hadn’t really visited the heart of the park when we were here 17 years ago. Our first stop was the visitor center and an animate discussion with an energized and enthusiastic park volunteer. The rangers and volunteers really make all the difference. She had something for everyone! She hit the nail right on the head – a loop crossing over 2 trail systems – Queen’s Garden and Navajo, total distance with a brief add on at the end to view prairie dogs – 4.59 miles. We traversed along the top of a ridge overlooking hoodoos (stone towers), then descended down among then towers, walked through the cool rocky canyon complete with douglas fir and squirrels, and finally back up up through a narrow split that was little more than 1-2 people wide. The journey was like none other we had experienced; definitely not simply another canyon and more rock as expected. The temperatures in the higher elevation the park were comparatively moderate only reaching the low 90s.
We headed back to visitors center to complete the junior ranger program, following a creemee reward at the general store.
Then we were off, deciding to take the potentially longer, but vehicle friendly path to Zion (no scenic route today). Still, the drive offered breathtaking views and 7,000 peaks to climb, canyons and forest until we got to the interstate.
I don’t know how Jenney does it, but she did it again. For the forth day in a row she has navigated us to an amazing free/low cost camping location just minutes outside a national park. First there was the $15 BLM site on the Colorado Rive outside Arches, next a beautiful and free National Forest site about a mile outside Capitol Reef, a free National Forest less than a mile outside Bryce Canyon, and today a free BML site only a few minutes outside Zion. Meanwhile all these National Park Campground and many of the commercial sites were full. The only drawback is Kevin has to endure a little bit of travel on gravel, dirt, or otherwise questionable roads. Tonight we are alone though, a chance to feel the exhilaration and slight discomfort of feeling completely isolated in the hollow up a lonely gravel road. We can’t decide whether hundreds of years ago it would have felt like a great hideout or a place to be ambushed.
We are in much lower elevations. Temperature at 10pm still hovering near 100F, maybe it’s really a natural frying pan. Off to bed.
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT – (the evening before we explored Bryce)
- Baby Pronghorn in Bryce Canyon (this if from the night before, but we didn’t have them in the last post). – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Pronghorn in Bryce Canyon (this if from the night before, but we didn’t have them in the last post). – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Our Free Campsite about 1 mile outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon on USFS lands. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Mom had NEW sunglasses! What happened to the old ones? We are not sure. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Sunrise Point, the start of our hike down the Queens Garden trail. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Careful! Falling off a cliff hurts. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- View of Bryce Hoodoos. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- View of Bryce Hoodoos with a silly bunch in front. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Hoodoos – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Peekaboo – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Hug a tree! Bryce Canyon had a lot of wonderful big trees here and there. – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Hiking the Queens Garden trail – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Hoodoo you Love? Sorry just had to, it is stuck in my head – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Bryce Canyon – on Queens Garden Trail, Teryn looking off at the Hoodoos – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Some of the trails had a steep drop off, Logan staying close to the rock – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Along the trail there were several arches cut into the hoodoos, very cool – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Hoodoos – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Kevin, not behind the camera – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Teryn photo bomb – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Cool image of tree – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Marker at the view point to Queens hoodoo – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- The Queen Hoodoo, named after the likeness to a statue of the Queen in England – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Trail arch – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Another arch on the trail – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Kevin, Logan, Teryn… being silly – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Views of the Queens Garden – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- In some places the trails gets very narrow and very cool! Jenney and Kevin – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Chipmunks – watch out, they will get right in your pack looking for food – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- What do you see? Kevin thinks it looks like a dog – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- The trail intersection, heading up to wall street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Logan chilling in a small window in a hoodoo – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Some hoodoos defy gravity – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Amazing trees as we head up wall street trail – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- What can we say, beautiful. Tress growing within the hoodoos – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Wall Street trail! – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Logan climbing Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Jenney climbing Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Teryn climbing Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Wall Street trail, Jenney, Teryn, Logan – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Kevin, Teryn, and Logan in an arch on Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Logan in arch on Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Jenney in arch on Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Wall Street climbs fast with lots of switch backs, here is Teryn up a level – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- A view down Wall Street at some of the switch backs – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Teryn in the background, Logan and Kevin one level below on Wall Street – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Bryce Canyon from the top of Wall Street trail – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Our BLM free campsite out side Zion – located about .6 mile up a gravel road – Outside Zion, UT.
- The evening before Zion, chilling in our sweet campsite, Jenney writing post cards – Outside Zion, UT.
- The evening before Zion, chilling in our sweet campsite, Teryn doing something on her iPod, I bet it is educational 🙂 Outside Zion, UT.