Bryce Canyon, UT

Bryce Canyon National Park

With seemingly another sunrise photo shoot failure in the books I decided that I was done with Canyonlands so I headed South.

The drive from Moab to Bryce was an interesting one. There were some more great views of canyons and desert landscapes. It was hard not to jerk my neck backwards and to every side while driving.

When I got off of highway 70 I seemingly went right into the forest. The landscape seemed like I was back in Colorado. There were more trees, grass, and large hills and valleys. It was a nice change of pace from the desert.

While on the winding back roads I came over a hill and saw about 100 black blobs moving on each side of the road and some in the middle. It was a herd of cattle. I slowly inched by and around them. Some came close that they could have fogged up my window with their slobbery mouths.

I eventually made it past most of them and came upon the many cowboys who were pushing them somewhere. It was pretty bizarre. I guess that’s what those “Open Range” signs meant. I thought it meant gun range.

After a few great landscapes and valleys, one more cow herd, and a bunch of cow poop on the road I made it to Bryce Canyon.

This area looks like the desert married the pine forest. It’s pretty cool looking. I spent some time at the visitor center talking to the ranger to figure out what hike to do tomorrow. Driving the 18 miles to the end of the park was pretty nice. Lots of pines up high in the desert. The view at the end was pretty impressive and yet different from the last two parks.

I found a dirt forest where I explored for a while for a campsite. It’s tucked up on a hill with some widely spaced pines on some dirt and sand mixture.

Day 2

I started off the morning going to a Sunrise overlook. I think I got some really cool photos. The pre-sunrise sky was beautiful with pinks and oranges.

Then I drove to the front of the park to take the 8 Mile Fairyland loop in Bryce Canyon. It Started off on the canyon rim and immediately moved down into the Hoodoos and the bottom of the canyon. There were so many different colors of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns.

It was a relatively quiet trail, I probably came across 20 people during the 8 miles. After about 2 hours and 4 miles I made it to the Bridge formation. I sat around for a few minutes eating some lunch and observing what looked like a blue jay with a black head. It was acting pretty territorial, jumping from tree to tree, screaming at the visitors.

The next part of the hike to the other canyon rim was about 1.7 miles straight up. It was by far the toughest part of the hike. My legs were burning. After getting to the top, the trail followed the rim through forested hills. It was a great area with all the tall pines around and the view of the canyon to the right.

I started cooking lunch (dehydrated dinner) in the parking lot and made myself comfortable for the drive towards Logan’s house, St. George, UT.

It was a really beautiful drive. I chose to take the scenic route through the Dixie National Forest. There were a bunch of mountains, valleys, a pond or two, and some rivers. The drive took around 3 hours to complete. At this point I was able finish the rest of my audio book The Fifth Wave. I loved the book. It was imaginative, suspenseful, mysterious, and really makes you think. I would recommend it to anyone.

When I got into St. George I posted up at a Starbucks and put in a few hours of work towards the Erie Bone Broth stuff. I was also killing some time until Logan got off work and Cam’s airplane arrived.

I picked up Cam from the very small airport near St. George. When we got to Logan’s apartment we were surprised to see Logan’s long time friend Mike Giles. He’s been traveling out west too, with his hopeful final destination being Portland, Oregon.

It turns out that Giles was at Arches the same day I was. An even bigger coincidence is that he was at Delicate arch the same night that I was planning on going to take the sunset shot. Hadn’t I been held up at the campground with the ticketing incident I would have taken the hike instead of the overlook and I would have ran right into him. Wild.

Let me remind you about the sensation I had when at Arches. It’s strange because when I was finishing up my Double O’s arch hike on the first day I at arches, I got the strangest feeling that I was going to run into someone that I know. That was the only time this trip I got that sensation. Coincidence? Psychic? Strange. Very strange.

The first night at Logan’s we watched the end of the Indians game where they won 1-0. I took the most amazing shower of my life, since my previous shower was at Trinidad Lake State Park 6 days ago. We drank some beers, had some good conversation, and just relaxed.