Bryce Canyon Redeaux

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT - Thursday through Monday, October 20 through 24, 2011

The last time we visited Bryce Canyon was in May of 2005. It was cold and rainy and too short a visit. This time we decide we'll stay three days and really do some hiking. We're psyched for this.

I can't say enough about how great the Interagency Senior Pass is. It has paid for itself many times on this trip. For example, entry into Bryce is $25 bucks. The senior pass costs $10. Entry fee with the pass is $0, and camping is half price. At this rate, we'll be able to stay out forever. The government, at least, got this right.

Because it's late in the year, we're now considered to be in the "Winter Season", one of the campgrounds and the only dumpstation is closed. We arrived fairly early in the day, 2PM, and we had trouble finding a site that would accommodate Big Guy. But we persevered and found a nice spot under the trees that got the early morning sun. After we got BG set up, we went to the Visitor Center to get the scoop on trail hikes and ranger talks. We also wandered down to Bryce Canyon City where we visited Ruby’s.  This is your typical tourist area, but we enjoyed the offerings, too.

Then we went to the General Store (back in the Park) and bought some firewood. We also had to try some of their beer and we got a deal on pizza. We bought one slice and it tasted good enough that we decided to have another. They gave us two slices for free. It was getting on towards closing time and they didn't want to have to mess with it, so we reaped the benefit.

For this evenings entertainment, we decided to go to a ranger talk about Virgo and dark sky viewing. The talk is indoors at the lodge and the viewing is supposed to have telescopes set up. The talk starts at 7:30PM and we arrive right on time. There are no seats left for the lecture and the only place to stand is at the back of the room where we can't hear the speaker. We forgot the cardinal senior rule: "If you're fifteen minutes early, you're late!". We decide to call it and evening and head back to BG.

Friday looks like it is going to be another beautiful day which is good because we have a hike planned. We decided we better do our hiking at the popular spots on Friday thinking the weekend would be crowded. The successful completion of the Queen's Loop and the Navajo Loop is our agenda for today.

As you can see, every where you look, you are treated with visual wonders. We're really glad we came back. Towards the end of the hike, we go through a section called Wall Street, but we didn't see any "Occupiers". Instead we felt like we were swimming upstream through a sea of bodies. Yep! You guessed it, more tour buses. And the funny thing is they were mad at us for going the wrong way. We've also concluded people who ride tour buses don't read real well. The trail guide advises hiking these trails clockwise, which we were doing. The tourists were going against the advised direction.

Along this hike we met two of the folks in the campsite next to us. The husband was a real talkative guy who had a hard time passing anyone without striking up a conversation. Meanwhile, his wife would keep hiking then turn around to come back and find him. It was quite funny.

Back at camp that night, we continued our conversation with our neighbor and found they had befriended a young couple that were bicycling their way south from Salt Lake City. Turns out the neighbor was traveling in the opposite direction we were, so we picked his brains as much as we could on what to expect along the route.

On Saturday, we strike out for the Peekaboo Loop, a 5 mile hike with a 1500 foot elevation change. What they fail to tell you is that there are a lot of elevation changes in between the start point and the end point that aren’t included in that total.

We though the hike yesterday was awesome. This trail was even more spectacular. There were hoodoos everywhere, we hiked through alpine forests and we really got to see everything up close. One added bonus, this is the only trail that has bathrooms at the bottom. The trail scored lots of points for that.

We met a few other hikers on the trail, but nowhere near as many as yesterday. Most of the time we were all by ourselves. It's nice to be able to stop and rest and just listen to the birds singing and the wind whispering through the trees.

This was also the horse trail, but they were only in our way for about 5 minutes.  Although you did have to keep a sharp eye out for droppings (biological landmines).

Towards the end of the hike we were feeling it, and it was all uphill for the last mile. But it was worth it. The beauty of the place was worth the strain.

Saturday night we supplied some firewood and sat around our neighbors fire ring and had some good conversations. The young bikers were trying to save some money, so we invited them to set up their tent on our site for the night. They had bummed a ride with our neighbors to Zion National Park. As the fire died down, we all bid our goodnights and retired to our respective abodes.

Sunday morning and we decide to stay two more days. Schedule, what schedule? It was near freezing this morning and we felt sorry for the bicyclists in the tent next to us. But they took in stride and made ready for the trip to Zion. We all said our goodbyes and they took off with the neighbors. We decided to have a down day and get some work done around BG. Frank had some outside cleaning to do, EJ had paperwork, Frank needed a haircut, and we needed to get caught up on the blog (well at least not so far behind).  While Frank was cleaning the outside, this little guy decided to investigate.

We hadn't been to the end of the park road, so we decided to fix that deficiency. We stopped at every pullout and view point along the way. Inspiration Point was almost a killer. There were three lookouts at that point and two off them were up steep hills. Can you say "Pant, pant, please pass the oxygen"? After Peekaboo Loop we were not ready for this, but we made it.

The wildlife was out this afternoon too.  We enjoyed their company.

Back at the campsite we noticed we had new neighbors, French we think. They were in a smaller Class C RV and there were six adults crammed in that thing. I guess they have a whole different take on the concept of "Personal Space" and privacy.

Another nice evening and campfire with Frank and EJ enjoying each other's company.

Monday we decide to tackle a couple hikes, making sure these were in the easy or moderate categories. Before we left, we get another new neighbor, this one from South Dakota.

We arrive at the Mossy Cave trailhead and we are the only ones here. The trail is accessible from outside the park, so it doesn't get as much traffic. We hike to the cave and feeling kind of spunky we decide to blaze a trail up the creek bed as well. It was another gem of a hike. We stopped and rested by a pool of water and had a nice snack. Then we turned around to head back. Before we could get back to the trailhead, the trail was teeming with other hikers. Once again, our timing was good and we got to enjoy the trail mostly by ourselves.

Then we took off for Fairyland Point. This location is also outside the park entrance, so you don't have to pay a fee to use it. However, the Park is sneaky and they don't have a sign coming into the park that tells you where Fairyland Point is. You only see the sign if you're leaving the Park after you have already paid your entrance fee.

We go back by the General Store and get a couple more bundles of firewood. When we get back to camp, Frank gets the campfire ready to start and fires up the barbeque to cook salmon, chicken, and pork chops. That way we have options for future meals. After supper, we start the campfire and invite our neighbors over to enjoy the fire with us. Turns out they're not from South Dakota, that's just where they have a mailing address. They actual have been fulltiming for two years. We swapped yarns, burnt up a bundle and a half of wood and called it a night.

BG Miles Today	98	BG Total Miles	10938
Eat Out total $	1564.03	BG Total Fuel $	6268.91
Entertainment total $	1401.63	Total Camping $	1214.53
E Miles Today	96	E Total Miles	3154.81
E Total Fuel $	659.45	Day # of Trip	142 - 146