Bryce Canyon NP, is a unique national park a MUST visit in my opinion. It's natural feature is like no others I've seen. initially i was worried that it would be too cold to visit during winter(end of Nov) when i was planning our roadtrip but to our surprise we were blessed with beautiful crystalline blue sky weather. Morning was quite chilly but afternoon when the sun shine down it was get really warm
Day 4
starting our day early from our hotel near Zion NP we drove about 2 hours taking the longer route rather that going through Zion NP
approaching Bryce Canyon
couldn't resist take picture with this cute arch
Entrance Fee to Bryce Canyon National Park is $30/car
or buy an annual pass for $80 which is valid for a year and unlimited entrance to all National Parks
a really good deal!
as usual we always check out the visitor center which located right after the entrance.
usually there are Free shuttle bus to get around the NP as it's parking area is limited(like in Zion NP). During winter time there are not shuttle buses, so come earlier!!!
ranger suggest that we do the popular Bryce Amphitheater, which was the main attraction of Bryce Canyon for the whole day as there are many trails in the area
parking is either Sunrise Point or Sunset Point different entrance but it's connected
with little effort one get to enjoy this amazing view...no hiking required
i was at awe, it's like BAM to your face amazing view
Thors Hammer on the right
I've visited many NP's is the USA I've not seen anything like this before
there is also campground...next time i want to camp here for sure
there is no words to describe this beautiful place(mainly due to my limited knowledge of English vocabulary)
these columns are called Hoodoos(no idea how this name came to be, i did not come up with this name) they don't always looked like this, in fact many million years ago it begin with massive hunks of limestone, sandstone and other rocks originally laid down as lake sediment. With constant forces of weathering, erosion and the high elevation that causes these effects. Mother nature is amazing, in a million years time this place is going to look different.
our hiking begin, start from Sunrise Point, Queens Garden Trail
not much shade in this trail....need sunscreen
this trail is relatively easy.... it was mostly downhill....for now
somehow we straw off our trail to see Queen's Garden and Queen Victoria
and went to horse trail and had to loop back up
to see the Queen Victoria
at Bryce Canyon weathering can later huge rocks within a human lifetime. Rain and frost- wedging carves these stones into curious shapes, including the Queen Victoria hoodoo, which was named for a statue in London
Queen Victoria on the left, it's actually very small almost missed it if there was not signage
the park ranger also recommended us to take Peek-A-Boo trail loop.....we almost skipped it (because of the detour earlier that wasted 30 minutes) as it was a 3 mile trail and it was getting dark soon and there is also some distance from Peek-A-Boo trailhead back to Sunset Point(our last stop)
i think we did the trail anti-clockwise... i wouldn't say it's easier but i'm glad there are some parts which is really tough(up hill) we did down hill
luckily we did the trail... i really enjoyed it
this trail is more challenging compare to the Queens Garden trail
more up and down hill along the whole trail
i did get a good work out from this trail..hehe
this is the part we were luckily that we are going down hill instead of up
talk about pure dumb luck
Wall of Windows
at this point it was getting dark.....we were laughing at this 2 guys as they still have long way to go... still unaware it was us that has a longer way to go compare to them
at this point we saw where we were on the map..... starting to walk on turbo speed
we were did 1.2 miles there is still 1.8 miles to go
OMG
bit more to go
running up and down luckily this half part of the trail was less challenging from the 1st half
for this 3 mile loop we manager to finished it in 1.5hours which was really fast for our record
finally back to the Navajo Loop Benchmark(boy were we glad as the Peek-A-Boon trail we didn't see any other hikers after seeing the two hikers at the Wall of Windows)
from there there about 2 route to reach Sunset Point, Two Bridges or the Wall Street trail
we decided to do the Two bridges
back to normal walking speed
We did it!!! i think we did almost 50k steps
the last climb up was damn tiring
Thors hammer up close
we were lucky enough to see the last light out from the canyon
view from Sunset Point. It was packed with people
i'm lucky to be able to squeeze in for a quick picture
oh ya during winter time there are only one store in Bryce Canyon NP sells food which is the General Store near Sunrise Point, the rest is all close so either pack food or just buy plenty of nutrient bar
for hotel we stayed in Ruby's Inn(bit shabby though but it's popular accommodation here, located just right outside of the NP) there is only one restaurant that is open during winter which is the restaurant(buffet) in Ruby Inn and the line for dinner is ridiculous and it's expensive! we didn't manage to try it (too hungry to wait in line for an hour) luckily there is a Subway about 10 minutes away. however they closed at 7pm make sure not to come too late. This roadtrip we ate alot of Subway hahaha sick of Italian B.M.T
next day continue to explore Bryce Canyon NP
~ to be continue ~
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