Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park
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We woke up, got ready quickly and headed for Bryce Canyon. Breakfast consisted of a Pop Tart on the way and Raison Bran at the parking lot. We arrived at Sunrise Point but it doesn’t have the same affect as Sunset Point since both are on the same side of the mountain, that is, facing east. We wandered down the trail towards Fairyland Canyon but then realized it was 5 km away and turned back.
We headed for Sunset Point where we were going to hike. As we were getting everything packed into backpacks for hiking, I realized I still had the motel key. So, we headed to Bryce Canyon Lodge to call them. They didn’t seem too care to much, and back we headed to Sunset Point.
After taking the obligatory 5 or 6 photographs of the hoodoos, we headed down the Navajo Loop trail. To understand how these trails begin (and end) you have to have a feel for Bryce Canyon topology. It’s not really a canyon. It’s really a cliff face, that, like the Badlands, is eroding. The east face is the eroded part and it erodes towards the west. There are great bowls in the cliffs, filled with hoodoos, which are the spires left behind by the erosion. They are different from the Badlands, both in rock composition and how they are formed. These are formed by the constant freezing and thawing of water. There are 200 or more days a year where it is below freezing here!
So anyway, to hike around the area, you pretty much need to walk over hoodoo mounds, or walk along the canyon floor. The overlooks are at the top, probably 800 feet above the valley floor. You have to get from there to the bottom. This is accomplished by a series of switchbacks. On the way down, it was probably 10. That’s the easy direction of course. The people coming up looked a little more fatigued.
The path meandered through a variety of rock formations, and along the massive collection of hoodoos near the cliff face. Really cool. It worked its way down to the bottom along Bryce River, and there met up with the Peek-A-Boo Loop trail. We were speculating whether to take this trail when we met up with an older couple, clearly from the New York area. They were very nice and were discussing amongst themselves whether they wanted to take the trail. They were reading from a sheet that described the trail. It had two 300 foot climbs, was 5 miles long, and “explored the most scenic parts of the canyon”. We decided we needed to do that.
I think largely because of our enthusiasm, they decided to go too. Throughout the whole trail we’d wander off ahead of them, then as we stopped to take pictures or wander off the trail, they’d catch up. They were actually pretty sturdy, although I think she will regret it for a few days (then be really happy).
The trail wandered all over the area, high up, down low, through canyons of hoodoos, into valleys with trees and even a little stream. We were inundated with scenic beauty. I have probably hundreds of pictures of rocks. We saw: two natural bridges, the “silent city” of hoodoos, the wall of windows, a couple of tunnels, orange spires, white spires, “wall street” a 200 foot or so canyon whose walls were about 6 feet apart, and which had a tree growing all the way out at one end.
Towards the end of the trail we came across a group of about 6 photographers, all clumped together with their tripods and such. Les commented that they looked like Custer’s Last Stand. We decided that they were a small but gallant band, trying to fend off the scenic beauty with their cameras. Les said to them, “You’re going to need reinforcements. I don’t think 6 photographers can hold of the scenic beauty alone”. They laughed. It was funny in context. Really.
The trail took about 2.5 hours. About 10 minutes after we finished, our trail friends made it too. They told us they were wandering the southwest for 3 weeks and had just been to Zion and the Grand Canyon. But the most amazing thing they’d seen in all of that was the Delicate Arch! Oh sure. We told them about all the places we had been. I think they were impressed.
From there we parted ways and headed back up out of the canyon. This meant walking up the 800 feet of cliff face we came down earlier. This required 29 switchbacks (according to our trail friend’s guide) to accomplish. It really wasn’t that bad. I think we’re getting hardier. I was a lot worse off after 6 miles in Glacier.
We now needed to drop off the key in Tropic and Les needed to fax some stuff for his wife, so I dropped him at the Lodge and headed back to Tropic myself. I dropped off the key, got more gas and headed back into the park (and got us a second map). On the way out we stopped at Fairyland Canyon. More hoodoos in another bowl. The place was crawling with “French types” from a tour bus. One of the women accidentally dropped her extra film and panoramic camera down the bowl (merde! she said).
I should point out that once again, the place was crawling with foreign travelers. Utah must run a special overseas, that’s all I can figure. We ran into Germans, French, Japanese, you name it.
From there we headed off to Zion, about 2 hours away. The drive was uneventful except for an apparent cat and mouse game with the Utah State Police. Two or three times he’d sort of appear either on the side of the road or behind us, but each time we were driving well within the legal speed limit. Better luck next time.
We weren’t actually expecting much from Zion. We’d seen all the canyons and colored rock there were and people had told me Bryce was better. But, again, we were surprised. Zion is really beautiful. High canyon walls and mountains. Red but not the same as the other canyons. As you enter the park, the mountains all are “checker boarded”. They had lines all over them. They looked sort of like fabric, or pottery, or something woven. They give the effect of stripes or non-symmetrical grid lines. Some of the rocks are petrified sand dunes and have all kinds of interesting layers and patterns on them.
Farther in, you go through a mile long tunnel through one of the big mountains and come out on the other side near Zion Canyon. The tunnel is a pretty interesting engineering achievement. It’s long and narrow and in fact, vehicles over 20 feet have to pay extra and have a special escort.
We headed past the canyon cutoff straight to the campgrounds to get a site since the ranger told us they tend to fill. They were pretty filled but we found a nice site in some trees. Then we headed back up the canyon.
The road meanders down a canyon of 800 foot walls, colored in a dark red and black, with the occasional mountain of white or yellow. A small but fast stream flows down the middle and trees line either side. The trees are oh, 50 to 100 feet tall at most, so they are dwarfed by the canyon sides.
We stopped to watch two climbers scaling a sheer cliff. One had attached a sort of platform to the cliff side and was standing there waiting, while the other, with all kinds of ropes attached to him, was slowly working his way up. We left them and continued to the end of the road.
The road ends at the “Narrows”. Same drill as before only the canyon walls are much closer together, probably 100-150 feet apart. A mile long trail heads down one side so we walked it. At the end of the mile you can continue up the river if you’re willing to walk in knee-deep to chest deep water at times. A warning sign at the entrance tells you about how bad the risk for flash floods, hypothermia and all kinds of nasty things are. Today it was high (from low, medium, high and extreme). At the low setting, you just have to worry about slipping, knee deep water, and flash floods if it starts raining. At the high level, it’s considered unsafe, chest high water, fast currents, risk of hypothermia. Extreme is basically instant death the moment you leave the trail.
The trail was really beautiful. We walked it as the sun was setting. Along the wall in various places, water oozed out of the rocks. Plants were growing in these places and it created a sort of hanging gardens there. It appeared that much of the water in the river was coming out of the canyon wall. We weren’t really sure if that’s where it all came from. The signs didn’t say. They did say though that the water coming down through the cliffs caused them to break off in large chunks and come careening down into the canyon. This was the normal process by which the canyon widened. They didn’t say how often this occurred. But, it seemed pretty quiet so we didn’t worry about it.
After a mile the trail ended at the river. Along the wall, people had left their shoes to continue into the river. The variety of shoes was fascinating from sneakers, to black patent leather ankle boots, sandals, clear plastic shoes, etc. There was a container there full of sticks that Les figured out were walking sticks you could borrow. A nice touch.
We headed back to the truck and headed out the canyon. The climbers were gone but some of their stuff was still attached to the cliff. We’re not sure where they went. We headed back to camp and a dinner of ramen noodles and meatballs. Pretty good actually. It’s a pretty warm night but it’s cooling off. We’re not sure how high up we are so we put up the rain fly and I’m bringing most of the cold weather gear into the tent.
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