HOODOO VOODOO
We
intended to sleep in on Wednesday.
However, the sun had other plans for us.
Even with the tent fly off, we began broiling inside the tent as soon as
the evil ball of fire crested the mountains.
We got up, stiff and sore from the previous day’s hike. I cooked breakfast and we organized the car
before breaking camp. I knew it was time
to get out of there when I noticed that a package of tortillas on the picnic table
was actually beginning to bubble. I
think if we’d left them there all day they would’ve turned into a loaf of
bread.
We
left the campground and drove back to Zion Adventures. We returned our stinky rental gear and then
headed across the street to an RV Park.
We took showers there ($5 for 8 minutes) before making one last stop at
the grocery store in town. We picked up
a few more things, including lunch to go.
The fresh sandwich I bought at the deli was surprisingly good. Then we headed out of the park, destination
to be determined.
My
original plan was to drive up to Navajo Lake, a large natural lake on a plateau
formed by an old lava flow. The lake has
no visible outlet. Water drains through
the bottom of the lakebed before escaping through the side of a cliff at Navajo
Falls. That sounded like something worth
seeing, and the falls only require a short, easy hike. However, getting there would’ve involved a
fairly long drive on dirt roads. I was
just tired enough that I failed to work up the motivation to make the trip.
From
there we’d planned to visit Bryce Canyon National Park before heading down Hole
in the Rock Road in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to camp. Needless to say, we didn’t have time to do
all of that. As I drove, I made some
modifications to the original trip plan.
We’d skip Navajo Lake and go straight to Bryce. If we were lucky, we might find a campsite
there. Camping at 8,000’ would be a nice
change from the heat of Zion Canyon. We’d
then head to Grand Staircase Escalante on the following day, a day later than
we originally planned.
One
advantage to the change in plans is that we’d have a rest day following the
toughest hike of the trip. Christy’s
knee was only a little swollen but still rather painful this morning. We were very aggressive icing her knee
throughout the trip, which seemed to help.
Since we had to buy a bag of ice virtually every day, it was easy to set
some of it aside for medicinal purposes.
We
enjoyed the same scenic drive out of Zion that we’d made the previous day. However, instead of turning off towards Chamberlain
Ranch (and Navajo Lake, incidentally), we continued ahead towards Mount
Caramel. It was all good roads from
there, as we headed north through the valley west of Bryce. Eventually we turned onto highway 12, which
is one of the most scenic drives in the country. We were planning to drive most of it on this
trip, but today we only traveled the stretch through Red Canyon. Red Canyon is quite scenic, featuring lots of
bright sandstone and a natural arch that the road passes through. Before long we left Red Canyon behind and
reached the turn for Bryce Canyon National Park.
Bryce
Canyon National Park is poorly named, as it is one of the few parts of southern
Utah that doesn’t have canyons. Bryce is
situated on a long, narrow plateau. It
is famous for its natural redrock amphitheatre, which
is renowned for naturally sculpted sandstone spires called hoodoos. I’d visited Bryce once before, in October,
2005. That visit had been limited to one
night of camping and a single dayhike. I was looking forward to a return visit,
while this would be Christy’s first time there.
Our
entrance into Bryce was delayed by about 30 minutes due to road
construction. At the entrance, the
ranger told us that there was still space available in the campgrounds at last
check. We headed straight for the Sunset
Campground, passing a couple of female Pronghorn Antelope along the way. The Sunset Campground turned out to be full,
so we doubled-back to the North Campground.
The pickings were pretty slim there, but we did find a spot. The good news is that it was near water and
the bathroom, and the weather was downright delightful at 8,000’. The bad news is that this part of the
campground (the D loop) is rather cramped.
The campsites are right on top of one another, so there isn’t much
privacy. There are some sites in that
campground that are much nicer, but of course those were already taken.
FAIRYLAND
We
set up camp, and I decided that my legs had recovered enough from the previous
day to manage an easy hike. I flipped
through a guidebook and picked the Fairyland Loop. It’s an 8-mile hike, but appeared to be
pretty easy. It was already 4pm, but I
was confident I could finish it in time for a late dinner. Christy decided to skip it. She was more than happy to enjoy the cool
weather and brisk breezes while lounging in our hammock.
I
began my hike right from our campsite. I
cut through the campground over to the Rim Trail. The Rim Trail connects many of the popular
tourist overlooks above the main Bryce Amphitheatre. Few people hike the whole trail since most of
the overlooks can be reached by car.
However, part of the Rim Trail connects with the Fairyland Trail to form
a loop. Since that part was the closest
to the campground, it seemed like the ideal place to start my hike.
I
was treated to outstanding views from the very beginning. The Rim Trail stays close to the edge of the
cliff the entire time, providing bird’s eye views of the redrock
hoodoos below. The views don’t stop
there though. Rather, they extend from
the northeast to the southeast, out over a convoluted landscape of cliffs,
mesas, and canyons.
I
reached the official Fairyland overlook after a couple of miles. This overlook is a bit of a drive off the
main road, so it doesn’t get as much visitation as some of the more popular
overlooks like Sunset Point, Sunrise Point, and Inspiration Point. Still, this was the only part of the hike
that could be described as crowded.
There were a handful of people at the overlook, and I saw only a handful
of other folks during the rest of the hike.
The Fairyland Loop passes through a separate area of hoodoos that is
somewhat removed from the main Bryce Amphitheatre. Despite this, the scenery was nearly as
impressive. Overall the loop offers a
fine combination of scenery and solitude.
It’s also a fairly easy hike, as I completed the 8 miles in 4 hours
despite taking lots of photos.
The
final highlight of the hike came near the end.
A short side trail led to a decent view of a natural bridge. From there, a moderate climb brought me back
up to the Rim Trail a short distance from the campground. The only drawback to my hike was that the
late afternoon light was not particularly conducive to photography. It was so sunny that I had to battle a
relentless glare all afternoon. I
would’ve loved a few white, puffy clouds, but all I had to work with was bright
sunshine and an endless blue sky. By the
time I finished the hike at 8pm I knew I would miss sunset. I vowed to get up early the next morning for
sunrise in hopes of better photos.
We
grilled chicken (for me) and fish (for Christy) for dinner. Due to extreme fire danger, all fires,
including charcoal, were banned in Zion.
Fires were still allowed in Bryce, so we decided to take advantage of
the opportunity. We went to bed shortly
thereafter, indulging in the cool weather.
Unfortunately we still didn’t sleep well due to sinus / allergy
problems, which plagued us throughout much of the trip.
PEEK-A-BOO
Getting
up in the dark the next morning was tough.
It was actually rather chilly outside the tent, but I wasn’t about to
miss out on sunrise. I dressed quickly
and grabbed the camera and tripod and headed for Sunrise Point. I contemplated driving over there, but
decided that I could get there just as quickly by walking from our
campsite. I arrived about 10 minutes
later, still well before sunrise. There
were perhaps 20 people at the overlook.
I was amused to note that all of the tourists were lining the railing on
the east side of the overlook, eagerly anticipating the sun’s first appearance
of the day. The serious photographers
had tripods set up facing the amphitheatre below. I joined them, as I was looking forward to catching
the first light of day on the cliffs and hoodoos.
I
didn’t have to wait long. The sun
eventually crested the horizon, lighting up the amphitheatre in red and
gold. After a few photos I headed
back. Christy was still asleep when I
returned to camp, so I puttered around for a bit, reluctant to wake her. Eventually hunger intruded though, and I
started cooking. Despite all the banging
around, I had to wake her just before breakfast was ready.
After
breakfast we broke camp and prepared for our morning hike. On my previous visit to Bryce I’d hiked the
Peek-A-Boo loop and loved it. That hike,
combined with the Navajo Loop, makes a figure-eight hike of less than 6
miles. Although there are some steep
sections, I thought it was one that Christy could handle, and certainly a hike
she wouldn’t want to miss.
We
drove to Sunset Point, which was very busy at mid-morning. There were people everywhere, and I knew our
hike would be a rather different experience from my hike the previous day in
Fairyland. One of those people was the
teenage boy from “Family Guy”. This was
the first celebrity sighting of our trip, so we were pretty excited. Critics might be inclined to point out that
“Family Guy” is a cartoon, but I don’t care.
We saw him, and I’m counting it.
We
started the Navajo Loop by descending through Wall Street. This stretch of trail is steep despite
frequent switchbacks. Eventually we
passed through a narrow crevice between two rock walls. A short distance beyond we left the Navajo
Loop and picked up the trail to the Peek-A-Boo Loop. This part of the hike was stellar, with all
sorts of cliffs and hoodoos. Eventually
we reached the most dramatic feature of the day, the Wall of Windows. An impressive cliff towered overhead. It was lined with spires, making it look like
the battlements of a long lost castle. The redrock wall was
broken in two places, where small but lovely arches separated the surrounding
cliffs. We spent a few minutes admiring
the scenery before heading back. On our
return we took the other half of the Navajo Loop. This took us past two small but interesting
natural bridges. From there it was just
an abrupt climb back up to the rim. As
we climbed the vistas opened back up to encompass the amphitheatre below, and
cliffs, mesas, and canyons in the distance.
We
returned to the car and briefly contemplated driving to some of the other
overlooks in the park. We both felt like
we’d seen enough of Bryce though, and my recollection from my previous visit
was that the overlooks farther south were a bit less exciting.
We
left the park but stopped at the strip of tourist crap (not really a town) just
beyond the boundary. This went against
all of my instincts, but we both were craving ice cream. We stopped at a gift shop / café that also offers horseback rides, among other things. The ice cream actually turned out to be the
best of the trip.
From
there we rejoined highway 12 and headed east towards Escalante.
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