Bryce Canyon

The second to last park we visited was Bryce Canyon. We had an afternoon and a morning to explore the park which wasn’t quite long enough to do the park justice. Upon our arrival we stopped at the visitors center to get a recommendation on hikes to do. The Queens Garden-Navajo Loop is one of the most popular routes in the park-and fortunately the ranger suggested that we do that one the next morning when there were less people. For our afternoon hike he suggested the 8 mile Fairyland Loop.

First we checked out the Rim Road- stopping at a few of the viewpoints to get a view of the amphitheatre.

We did the Fairyland Loop from Sunrise Point and it took us the predicted 4-5 hours to complete the hike. We got to see the China Wall, Tower Bridge, and rocks that we thought looked like faces.

Everything we read on the internet suggested that sunrise was the best time of day to be in the park. Those of you who know us know that we’re not exactly early risers. We woke up, checked out, and had our cereal (conveniently picked up at Ruby’s general store) up at Sunrise Point with only a few other tourists around.

After breakfast we set out on the Queens Garden and Navajo Loop hike where we saw Queen Victoria and Wall Street.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Our May trip was the second time I had been to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We were based in Boulder so we got to explore an area further north of where Katie, Renee, Roxie, and I went hiking. We drove 26 miles along the dirt Hole in the Rock Road to the trailhead for the Spooky and Peek-A-Boo Gulches. Both of these slot canyons were spectacular. At some points Spooky Gulch was so narrow that you could feel the rock along both your chest and your back as you shuffled along.

Peek-A-Boo Gulch featured a wider canyon and an entrance to the canyon that was about a 10 feet scramble.

There was evidence of the floods that carved the gulch- such as this tree that was stuck about 20 feet above our heads.

On our way out of the national monument we took the time to explore Devil’s Garden which was our first introduction the hoodoos that make Bryce Canyon famous.

Capitol Reef National Park

Like Canyonlands, Capitol Reef National Park was a park we hadn’t heard of before we moved to Utah. The capitol part of the name comes from the Navajo sandstone which folks thought looked like the Capitol dome. We thought they looked more like massive Hershey Kisses.

Monday we drove from Moab to Boulder, approximately 4 hours, and passed through Capitol Reef along Highway 24. That’s when we learned that it wasn’t a reef at all- it had been named that because, like a reef, the Water Pocket Fold impeded travel.

The following day we drove the Burr Trail Road back into the park. The Burr Trail Road crosses the Fold itself- which makes for some pretty amazing looking rocks. The road was paved for 36 of the 41 miles we drove.

The road drops approximately 800 feet in half a mile with a series of switchbacks.

The Burr Road ends at the Notom-Bullfrog Road- which we drove about 30 dusty dirt road miles back up to Highway 24.  We checked out some of the scenic spots along Route 24- and hiked the Rim Overlook Trail which has views of the Hickman Bridge and tilted rocks in the distance.

Then we checked out the scenic drive- which made us think that Capitol Reef was the park with the Best Scenic Drive. There’s a campground there that we’d like to go back and stay at. It was fairly late afternoon when we did the drive- which made for some great lighting at the Egyptian Temple.

(for some reason the photos all look centered in the visual editor but are showing up weird in the actual post. Sorry about that.)

Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point State Park

Being on the road for the majority of May has meant that I haven’t finished posting about our trip last month to southern Utah. Canyonlands wins our award for “Park With the Best Viewpoint”. The park is divided into 3 distinct districts- and you can’t get from one district to another.  We only went to the Island in the Sky District.  We’d like to go back sometime to explore the other two districts and maybe do some of the harder hikes in Island in the Sky.

Dead Horse Point State Park (named because wild horses used to be corralled out on the promontory- and one time the ones that weren’t selected to be roped and broken supposedly died) is near the entrance to the Island in the Sky District so we stopped there to have a look around their view point which was pretty amazing.

Dead Horse State Park lies along the Colorado River which you can see some 2000 feet below.

After entering Canyonlands, we checked out the two viewpoints of Upheaval Dome. Upheaval Dome is a unique geologic feature in the area- instead of horizontal beds of sedimentary rock there’s an anticline (dome) surrounded by a syncline. There are two main theories behind how it formed- salt dome and impact crater.

After checking out Upheaval Dome, we did the easy Grand View Point hike. Island in the Sky District lies at the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. At one point in time, the Colorado, up stream from the Green was called the Grand River. So the Grand View Point is a view of the Colorado River above the Green- but it is also a great view point.

After years studying volcanoes and living in places where there aren’t sedimentary rocks, it turns out that I am am a big fan of the different colored layers.

On our way to Mesa Arch we came across a couple who had accidentally backed the rear tires of their RV off of the road (eek). They asked us to go to the visitor’s center to get them a tow truck. After driving to the center we headed to Mesa Arch- these photos don’t really do the arch justice- because you are only seeing the top few feet of the arch. The arch actually starts well below where we were.

One thing about Canyonlands is that there isn’t potable water readily available to fill up your bottles like there is at Arches, Zion, or Bryce.  The Visitor Center sells some water- both small and gallon size-bottles.