Bryce Canyon Part II

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We have been enjoying our stay in the Bryce Canyon area. The rock formations in this national park are truly amazing. Plus there are many other destinations in the area worth exploring. There are definitely smaller crowds here compared to Zion. Some of the reason for this may be the downright cold weather we are having here. When Chris had checked in to Ruby's, a group of tent campers were checking out early stating the sub freezing temperatures were just too much to deal with. I know I wouldn't want to be tent camping in these conditions.

Within the national park, the shuttle system does not regularly run to the southern reaches of the park. The main park road continues about 15 miles further than the Bryce Point bus stop. Having explored most of the northern destinations, we decided to spend the day exploring the rest of the park. Near mile marker 6 is the Swamp Canyon parking area.

At the Swamp Canyon Overlook

Most people will stop for a few minutes to take some pictures before moving on. This was our starting point for the Sheep Creek/Swamp Canyon hike. Being a loop, you are presented with a choice after about 1000 feet. We picked the trail to the right (doing the loop counterclockwise) which takes you down into Swamp Canyon first. After completing the loop, we believe this is the preferred direction to hike. The first part is down to warm up the body gradually then the middle portion is back up Sheep Creek with the last section being over the relatively flat portion along the woods back to the parking lot. There is about 700 feet of elevation change to make up but the loop is just over 4 miles so not too difficult.

Lots of Fire Damaged Trees Along Trail

Nice Views Along the Way

This is a very lightly traveled trail. We saw a few "real" hikers with full packs coming out after back country camping. Might be fun if we were their age, but we prefer the comfort of our rig. The trail was in nice shape and the views were quite nice. Admittedly the climb back up Sheep Creek was a bit tiring but not at all challenging. Since the last portion of the walk was along the woods, we had fully recovered by the time we got back. Well maybe not fully recovered as several people stopping for pictures looked at our tired expressions and probably wondered what we were up to.

Heading Back Up Sheep Creek

We were ready for lunch so we drove to the southernmost portion of the road to Rainbow Point at mile #18. This area is quite large with many picnic tables, rest rooms and great views. We did the 1 mile Bristlecone Loop to take in some of those views before having our picnic lunch.  Then we slowly made our way back north. This worked out well since nearly all the viewing pullouts are on the northbound side of the road.

Nice View Along Bristlecone Loop

More Rock Formations

Not all the viewing areas have large parking lots but we generally were able to stop at each one to check out how the view had changed since the prior one. At one of them was a huge raven that nearly seemed like somebody's pet. It was sitting on the ledge or a sign post begging for food and of course there was some idiot willing to oblige (not us). At the Natural Bridge area was an impressive stone arch. Overall, this made for a pretty nice day.

Overlook View

Another Overlook

Raven Says "Feed Me"

Natural Bridge

Oh Look Another View

Hoodoos in Training

After dinner we headed to Fairyland Point. It is actually part of the park but north of the entrance station so there was no need to wait to get thru. We had heard the sunsets can be nice there, but we found that based on the topography, we would have needed to get there much earlier for the sun to be hitting the fairies.

Nice Colors at Sunset

On our last full day in the area, we decided to explore back by the Kodachrome Basin State Park area. The other day we were there, we simply ran out of time to see all we really wanted to see. Today would start out with the Willis Creek Canyon hike near Cannonville. Once off the paved road, the 6 mile dirt road to the trailhead was not for the faint of heart. Let's just say I was glad to be driving a Jeep and not a Prius and I'm pretty sure Chris had her eyes closed at times with a death grip on the grab handles! We did discover that somebody had somehow managed to drag their travel trailer to the parking lot. There were several other cars here. More than we expected, but not at all crowded.

We had opted to bring our water hiking shoes once Chris had read that water flows here nearly year round. That turned out to be a good call. Not that we couldn't have done the 6 miles we ended up doing in our normal hiking shoes and stayed dry, but it was actually nice to be able to just walk through the water instead of trying to step from rock to rock on our innumerable crossings. The water was only a few inches deep and usually only a few feet wide. Our dog Shelby would have just loved this hike.

In the Slot

Fascinating Rock Layers

The first 1.5 miles from parking are the most dramatic with some impressive slot canyon features. At one point you get to a narrow waterfall with a 6 or 7 foot drop. Fortunately there is a bypass trail that allows you to safely get past it. Just remember to walk back up to be able to see the falls from the lower vantage point. From there on out, the canyon is much wider but still very beautiful. We ran into another couple at about the 2 mile point and asked if the hike ever gets to a point where you are forced to turn around. They didn't think so.

Erosion Does Wonderful Things

We found ourselves saying "let's just go to this next bend to see around the corner". We did this over and over but at the 3 mile point, we had some other creek join Willis Creek and after enjoying a snack in the shade, we decided to turn around and head back since we had lots more we wanted to do that day.

Waterfall

Just a bit east of Kodachrome Basin, is Grosvenor Arch. And just like our last stop, there is a long dirt road to follow to get back to this place. Along the way we had a couple cow encounters. The first was a mother and her calf nursing on the road. Fortunately they were on the far side and other than a passing glance as we slowly drove by, they didn't seem to be bothered by our presence. Then just around a curve, we saw a big black cow standing on the side of the road. The road had been cut through a small hill, so this cow was about 4 feet above us. She looked at us coming almost as if she were checking for traffic before crossing. We decided to stop and she made her way down the hill, across the road, and up the opposite side. Not sure all the cows are so well training in road crossing, but this one seemed to be.

Mom and Calf

At the arch parking area, there were actually several other vehicles here as well and after eating our lunch, we took the path back to the arch. It is pretty impressive. Especially when standing below it. It is about 175 feet tall and 100 feet wide. Probably worth the drive back here to see it although we had an extra incentive since the arch is the location of an EarthCache. A geocache where there is no container, but you need to answer some sort of geology question about what you are looking at.

Grosvenor Arch

Next stop is Kodachrome Basin State Park. It had turned out to be quite a warm afternoon. In retrospect, it might have made more sense to do the state park in the morning and the creek walk in the heat of the afternoon. Maybe we don't put enough thought into our day trips. Panorama Trail is one of the more popular hike in this park. We opt to do the shorter portion of it given the heat. The trail takes you past many of the odd rock hoodoos, spires and columns. A lot of them have been named. We saw Fred Flintstone and The Ballerina but admittedly it was unclear which direction one needs to view them from (or what drugs one needs to be on) in order to "see" the character.

Fred Flintstone

The Ballerina

Unknown Names

At one location along the trail, you are presented with the option to head to Panorama Point. If you have the energy and enough water, we recommend you go for it. It is a bit of a climb up the trail, but the views are well worth it. We had crossed paths with a couple of women out on their mountain bikes and one of them had actually biked up to the top. We chatted with her and gave some advice about other things to see nearby before she sped down the trail. We headed back to the car after taking in the views and some pictures.

Along Panorama Trail

From Panorama Point

Flowers on Panorama Point

We made one last stop in the park - Chimney Rock. We had two reasons. It sounded interesting and there is a geocache located nearby. As we drove the dirt road, we came across our first pronghorn other than the ones we have seen from the shuttle bus. Neither of the pair presented themselves for a great picture but it was still neat to see them. After parking at Chimney Rock, we headed toward the cache. The cattle were grazing in the area and we were concerned we might need to move them out of the way. They were 100 feet away from the cache but based on the cow chips near the cache, it appears they come over to check up on the cache from time to time.

Cattle on Way to Cache

Chimney Rock

It's hard to believe how fast our week here has gone. Two weeks might have been a better length of time but we have places to go. In southern Utah, there is something known as the Mighty 5. Utah's 5 most famous national parks - Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. A lot of people will attempt to visit all 5 in a two week vacation window. I'm glad we have the ability to slow the pace down. In fact we will have spent 18 nights and only visited three of them. The last two are too far east for our current travel plans but our next destination is a little further north to Capitol Reef area. We will surely make it back for Arches and Canyonlands in a future trip