We enjoyed one last meal at Clear Sky where I had avocado toast with an egg on top. Every meal at that restaurant was a great experience. I then got a latte to go, we packed up, and headed out. Our first stop was the trail at Mossy Cave, a section of Bryce Canyon on our way to Bryce Canyon City.
Usually, this cave is filled with icicles in the winter (and moss in the summer). As you can see, there were almost none when I visited. I also heard a couple of people on the trail comment about how weird it is to see the trail without snow so we may not have seen this trail as it normally is in the winter.
There was a frozen waterfall in the opposite direction of the cave. I was able to find a trail that crossed it above for a unique view and then on our way back out, we walked into the watershed for an up close look from below.
From there, we continued into the main part of Bryce Canyon National Park. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and started with the amphitheater section of the canyon, the first three miles of the scenic drive. Bryce Canyon is home to the largest concentration of hoodoos (rock formations) in the world. The scenic drive of the park follows the rim so the views you get are from above unless you are willing to hike down into it. On this day, we stayed up on the rim. To say this was impressive would be an understatement.
We started at Sunrise Point and after checking out that viewpoint, I took the paved one-mile path to Sunrise Point and back.
This is the view from Sunrise Point.
The rim trail was very busy on this Sunday afternoon and a steady stream of hikers headed down this trail, the Queen's Garden Trail. Wanting to get a view from down below, I observed where the path went to see if it was something I might be able to come back and do the next morning. Although, it is a bit of a descent, it looked really doable.
We continued our drive on to Inspiration Point. At Inspiration Point, there is a lookout just off the parking lot and then you can climb higher to two further lookouts. It was a bit of a climb to get to the last one but well worth the view.
We continued on to Bryce Point which is an incredible viewpoint as you get to see the formations and canyon from all sides. It is also a paved pathway making it fairly doable for most people.
Continuing down the scenic drive, we got to know each pair of Common Ravens that seemed to have claimed each overlook/trailhead. These are such fascinating, huge black birds! This one was guarding the overlook to Natural Bridge.
From the Natural Bridge overlook, we checked out a few more overlooks before calling it a day.
After a day in the park, we drove into Bryce Canyon City and arrived at our hotel, the
Best Western Ruby's Inn. Our room wasn't quite ready yet so we sat down for a meal in their restaurant. After eating, our room was all ready.
We had connecting rooms which was especially nice since the hotel has outside entrances to each hotel room and it was cold! They were pretty basic rooms. They clearly were set up with all kinds of sizes for large families with lots of beds but there wasn't a simple king room with extra seating so this was the least comfortable space to sit and chat in. Additionally, we were in a back lodge where the elevator and stairs weren't all that conveniently located. All that said, it worked fine and with how little was open in Bryce Canyon City, it was good to have a restaurant on site.
No comments:
Post a Comment