Bryce Canyon

On the drive into Bryce Canyon it seems that they are doing some road construction and that means only 1 lane of traffic something that has happened many times this trip already.  The visitor center is right after you pay at the entrance.  Like most visitor centers the rangers are outside under a canopy to help peeps along the way.  There did not seem to be any lines to see the rangers.  I also noticed that the sign at the visitor center said if you were vaccinated and it was 2 weeks ago then you don’t have to wear a mask!  You do have to wear a mask on the bus however so make sure you bring one with you when you are hiking and taking the bus.  The bus is said to run every 10-15 minutes but when I was done hiking and headed to campground I talked to three young ladies for 30 minutes and only 1 bus came.  Another bus driver told me that today was very busy so that maybe why the bus did not come to the Sunset Campground and beyond.  Despite the long delay for the bus today for those three young ladies I had to wait no more than 15 minutes for my bus when I took it to Brice Point to get cell service, upgrade my data plan and try to update the blog.  Blog update did not happen but the other two did happen!  Day 2 at Bryce started with me heading to Bryce Point on the shuttle.  I have to say for the most part the shuttle is the way to go as parking is hard at the various points and also its free!  On the hike over to the bus stop, I ran into a van camper who was a chatty Kathy.  We chatted for a bit and she is going to stay another night as he has me to chat with after I get some stuff done like a shower!  Also looking for a place to do laundry and high speed data to upload photos to make a certain friend happy.

Sunset campground – I go into the campground as it was first come first serve until the 20th when I have a reservation.  I was able to get the same spot for the entire time so that is good for the home team.  The first loop of the campground is very nice and goes through some large pine trees which is good for shade and not good for solar.  There is a Bryce Canyon shuttle stop next to the campground so that will be able to eliminate some driving.  The campground has 110 sites that are in 3 loops.  Loop A has the most sites and is for RV and tents, so that is where I am located.  Loops B and C are for tents and NO generators are allowed good thing I don’t have a generator.  Each of the loops has a restroom and loop A has 3 fresh water areas.  Loop A also has 2 ADA spots

Rim Trail – as the name would lead you to believe it takes you along the rim of the amphitheater of Brice Canyon.  I did a bit of a bastardized version of the trail from the campground.  To start I went along the bike trail (near the road) to Inspiration Point.  This was my first view of the canyon and boy are the colors wonderful.  The bike trail ended here for me and I got on the Rim Trail and took it to Bryce Point.  The trail is not marked but if you can’t see the canyon’s amphitheater then you are lost or if you fall in you went too close to the edge.  It is not paved but the dirt is very hard.  From Inspiration Point it is a bit of an uphill walk to get to a flat section where most of the rim trail is flat going towards Bryce Point.  There is a bit of a switchback just before Bryce Point but after conquering that it is a piece of cake.  Bryce Point has a nice lookout and you can see the trails in the canyon which I will be taking tomorrow and the next day.  I then took the rim trail back to Inspiration Point and went onward to Sunset Point where I connected to the trail that leads to the Sunset campground.  From the campground to Inspiration point on the rim trail is 0.7 miles.  From Inspiration to Bryce Point is 1.3 miles and about 100 feet of elevation gain.  The return trip is 1.3 and 0.7 so my math today say 4 miles.  Along the trail I had a Towson State grad from 1979 say hello and we chatted for a bit, not making the people along the way however, and also chatted with a young lady from Charlotte who is from Howard County in MD whose brother played soccer at Towson but well after me.

Bryce Point to Peekaboo Loop Trail –  Glad I started early in the AM today but it was not too early since chatty Kathy took up 30 minutes.  My time on the trail was 3.5 hours.  The first part of the trail is a long and steady downhill trail.  There are a few switchbacks but for the most part until you get to Peekaboo you have a long steady downhill hike.  The trail has a tunnel, not like the one on Kaibab, but it was still nice.  There was some trail maintenance happening today and so I had to go around the mini-dozer making fixes to the trail.  Note: trails in Bryce are maintained a minimum of one time per year.  The trail to Peekaboo loop trail was 1 mile down.  The Peekaboo Loop Trail – is a loop trail that is steep in places but is a total of 3 miles once you get to the loop.  They say go clockwise on the loop and I did that and experienced my first uphill of the days hike.  I also met a young lady from Belgium, and a young man from Mexico walking together and we hiked for a bit.  They were much faster than I was and I also wanted to stop and take photos along the way aka rest.  There was a few hard switchbacks but that lead to another tunnel and then down!  At one point on the way down you go through another tunnel and when you come upon it you can’t see the trail and it is nice but also scary.  The trail then went down until you get to the bottom of the canyon and boy was there a bunch of activity at the bottom since all of the trails on the bottom meet at this point.  I decided to rest a bit in the shade and have a snack with a nice couple from Ohio.  We had a pleasant conversation and we started up the trail together.  Up being the key word here as the trail had to back up to the meet the trail accessing the rim some 1571 feet above you.  The hike up on the “clockwise” way was long and steady for the most part.  That did not mean I did not stop to take photos as it is amazing in the canyon.  The trail is well groomed and mostly hard packed surface.  At the various intersections you have trail markers which are easy to read but other than at that point you are hiking and hoping you are on the correct trail.  If you are not on the correct trail you are not a hiker as Mr. Magoo could stay on the trail.  When you come to Bryce Canyon the Bryce point to Peekaboo is one way to get to the bottom of the canyon.  Note: if you are taking this trail to some other trail then go right at the Bryce Point / Peekaboo intersection as it is 0.4 miles less and virtually not uphill to the bottom.

Navajo Loop – this trail is a loop trail as the name suggests but the two sides are very different and have different names.  One side is Two Bridges 0.6 miles and the other side is Wall Street 0.7 miles.  The total elevation gain/loss is 550 feet.  Note: Wall Street is only open in the summer months, guess May is in the summer now.    I went down the Two Bridges side and it was steep at the beginning of the trail after the split.  Before the split the trail surface is paved but after it is just hard and dusty.  The beginning of Two Bridges has a few switchbacks and then you have a fairly steep rest of the way but it is not switchbacks.  The name sake of the trail is towards the bottom and it requires a few steps off the trail to see them.  There is a chain up so that the yo-yo’s don’t go too close to the namesake.  The second part of the loop is Wall Street and this is the second trail I have been on that has a Wall Street.  Wall Street gets its name from the trail being between two walls of rock.  The hike at the bottom is a gradual incline but when you get to the rock portion you are going up!  The start of the walled area is a series of steps and in some cases they are narrow so ensure you are courteous and let others come down/up on the trail.  There are some small switchbacks in one section that are not that hard to get up.  A cool part is the tunnel that you have to pass through and it is only about 5 feet 8 inches tall or something like that, I had to duck down to get through.  The entire look took me less than 1 hour do do and it was a good way to get to the bottom if you wanted to do some trails at the bottom of the canyon.

Two Bridges

Wall Street

General store – the store is nice and has all of the essentials for your needs in the park.  The prices are relatively equal to that in a store not near the park.  Rudy’s Inn is another store before the park and they have all kinds of stuff from food, camping and trinkets for your purchasing pleasure.  The general store also houses the laundry and showers.  Laundry area is nice with four washing machines and a cost of $2.50 for a wash.  There are eight dryers and they cost $0.25 for four minutes of drying time.  In order to dry your stuff you need about 24-32 minutes so the dry is $1.50 to $2.00 but you can choose how damp/dry you want your clothes.