Two days at Bryce Canyon June 22 & 23

Pam and I headed to Bryce, not quite knowing what to expect. The information for this park is hard to come by compared to the Grand Canyon and Zion. We arrived at the park entrance, well sort of...we came to the shuttle buses, but weren't sure where the park was. We showed our National Parks entry card, well sort of...and hopped on a bus. We went to the visitors center, watched a movie, and tried to figure out the maps of trails, overlooks, and bus stops, and weren't really successful, so....we hopped on a bus and went to the first stop, Bryce Overlook. As it turns out, it was really unique, beautiful, and we found out what a hoodoo was. A hoodoo is the unique rock formation, like pillars, that make up the areas topography. Our pictures will hopefully show how different the area is from the other parks we've been to. We found trails, and even though we weren't really prepared for a long hike, down into the hoodoos we went. We did the Peekaboo Loop, and the Navajo trail, which were steep, up and down, and very dusty. We were walking through an inch of fine, dry, powder in some areas, and hard pack clay, either white or red, in others. We ended up walking probably 4+ miles, and came out at a different overlook than we went in. We started getting a feel for the place, and what was available. The shuttle buses don't run the entire length of he park, so we checked out the main areas accessible by shuttle today, and saved the stuff we have to Jeep to for tomorrow. Bryce is not nearly as busy as the previous parks, very nice and beautiful in its own way, but Pam and I agree, it places third out of the three national parks we've seen in this area...but still....really unique and nice.

More tunnels!!  These are short guys in Bryce Canyons

Bryce Canyon

These are hoodoos!  Kinda look like pillars

We are hiking down there......

Looking out to Bryce Valley, and the town of Tropic

Hiking down the trail again!

More hoodoos

Walking thru an arch and if you don't make a left turn, you walk off the cliff!

Look at the base of this rock, it has purple in it!

Hoodoos!

Wow!

This is called a window.

Mike out on a point

Panoramic view - click on it and it should grow.  Cyndi, let us know if it works!

Another narrow trail.....

Taking a break

Mike's feet on the hike

This is called Two Bridges

That's our trail!

Just grin and bear it!

Good advice!

Day two was a Jeep day, as we rode out through the park an additional fifteen miles or so, stopping at some new overlooks, checking out the pronghorn sheep in some of the meadows, and riding through some more forest fire areas from a few years ago. When we got out to the farthest reaches of the park, Rainbow Point, we took some pictures, and I hopped on my bike for a ride back through the park, while Pam hopped on a trail to do some hiking. Rainbow Point was at an elevation of 9115 ft, and the ride through the park was going to be a downhill run for me. It was a good ride, more gear headaches notwithstanding. I did have a few good climbs, even though I dropped about 1500 ft. My first climb was at about 9000 ft, when my blood wasn't flowing yet. The skies turned green and the trees turned blue, and the sound of sucking oxygenless air went with my dizzy feeling. But, it was gone soon enough, and everything turned back to the proper colors as I hit my downhills. I got a total of 32 miles in about 2:15, and met Pam at the Red Canyon Visitors Center. After leaving Bryce, I got back on highway 12, and rode a pretty good bicycle path through the Dixie National Forest to the Red Canyon. We hooked up the bike to the Jeep and stopped at Sonnyboys BBQ for supper, 2013 Utah BBQ Champion!

Prong horn 

I guess some people just don't have common sense!

Bryce Canyon is a beautiful place

Natural Bridge point - but it isn't really a natural bridge, it's an arch!  It's made by wind , not by water.  That's the difference!

Taking a break before he starts his "short ride thru the park"

We told you it was steep!

Almost looks like a castle, doesn't it!