Diary for Harry and Judy's RV Trip


Day 47-Bryce Canyon National Park

2011-06-02

Spent all day in Bryce Canyon National Park-it’s an 18 mile road in and the same road out with 14 stops along the way with magnificent views, each one different from the rest. We spent almost seven hours going the 36 mile route. Beautiful sunshine, 55 degrees at the top, 67 at the bottom.
We first went to a place called Mossy Cave, a ½ mile hike up a mountain to a cave that was very disappointing once we got there but it was a nice hike and we saw a great waterfall along the way. We then stopped at the visitor center and the rangers had a telescope that you could safely see the sun through, pretty cool, a big red ball and we could even see the eruptions around it. Tonight they’re having a star show at 10PM and they say you can see Saturn’s rings. They have some of the darkest skies in the US here. Don’t know if we’ll come back for that.
Of course every place we stopped had it’s own beauty and characteristics, there was the Fairyland Canyon which was pretty pinks, Sunset Point, Sunrise Point with formations called Hoodoos, Natural Bridge, an ampitheatre down in the bottom of the canyon. Different shapes and colors, each better than the one before. Took over 400 pictures so I’m having a hard time picking which ones to post. And they don’t even begin to give you an idea of how enormous these formations are. Great stops with restrooms, picnic areas and some even have concessions where you can get something to eat, places where hikers can take a shower, horse riding trails, all sorts of things to do.
Stopped at Old Bryce Canyon City on the way back, just outside the park, a big tourist trap, but some fun stuff in it. An grocery in the back with lots of camping gear and hiking supplies, lots of backpackers here. There’s trails all over the place, easy ones, hard ones, in the middle ones and you can actually hike around the entire rim. I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents, there’s no rails and the trails are slippery in some spots. Warnings about loose stones, dangerous cliffs all over the place.
Came back to camp and had dinner, then waited ‘til it got dark….not ‘til after 10 here and went out, found a dark spot behind the playground and watched some stars.