The Bryce Canyon Experience

Capitol Reef to Bryce Canyon is a great drive for people who love to drive. Following down U.S. Scenic Byway 12 leads a winding path through the Dixie National Forest, climbing to an elevation of 9000 feet along the way. The true gem of this road is going through a section of the Grand staircase, in which the road gives way on both sides to sheer drops and surrounding canyons. The road is actually a little bit difficult to navigate one you reach this part as so many people have simply stopped their cars in the middle of the two lane road to take pictures, despite the signs every half mile warning otherwise. Once past the Grand Staircase the road begins to climb drastically and finally you reach Bryce Canyon. My first goal was to find a place to camp, it being so late in the afternoon I knew that the parks campgrounds were already full, so I drove into Bryce Canyon City. Although extremely condensed, this city is completely overdone. Ruby's is the say all be all. I stayed in Ruby's campground for two nights at Bryce Canyon, as I literally had no other options. Ruby's owns the entire city. If I wanted to eat at one of the three diners, buy groceries from the general store, get my car fixed, rent a car, bike, jeep, or ATV, stay at a hotel, take a scenic flight, take a rafting trip. Ruby's was it.

It was actually a little surreal that one entity could run a town like this. Bryce Canyon is one of the primary attractions in the Grand Circle, so it would stand to reason that the town would be completely overrun and commercialized by any number of hotel chains and rental companies all desperately competing for their piece of pie. But alas, Ruby's was able to maintain a monopoly.

Early the next morning I set off to hike into Bryce. The name of Bryce Canyon is slightly misleading as it isn't so much a tree canyon, as an enormous amphitheater filled with hoodoo's; geologic structures that are formed by the erosion of sandstone by wind and water. I started to hike into Bryce with the intention of taking the Navajo loop trail, which is about 3 miles round tip top to bottom, but after walking down a mile worth of switchbacks, I came to find that the trail I had set off for had recently been closed due to falling rock. Having entered the the Sunset Point trail head, I decided to take a hike down the Queen's Garden trail which would lead me to the Sunrise Point trail head, only a mile and a half down the way. Once there I decided to turn around and head back to the beginning and find another trail to try, when four young Australian women came down the path with the intention of hiking the Peekaboo loop, which is a three mile circle through some of the most scenic parts of the amphitheater.

With my Camelback mostly full and a few Clif bars in my pack, I set off slightly ahead of the group, stopping every once in a while for a rest and chit chat with the heavily accented ladies. The trail was pretty strenuous mostly with steep climbs up then down and back up again through forested sections as well as open areas in which Hoodoos and monoliths towered over me. The sun felt very warm on the back of my neck despite the temperature only being in the low 70s. Snow pack was still at the edge of every turn in the trail, sometimes having to hike through hallways four feet deep on either side of melting snow. I was able to stop a few times and converse with hikers coming from the other direction and find out how far they had hiked and for how long to get an idea of how much further I had to hike. After I alerted the Australians that we were only a little bit past the halfway mark I was made to be the bad guy for being the bearer of bad news. The last bits of the hike may have been the best as the trail led along a ridge that overlooked the heart of Bryce Canyon. The sun was so high in the sky that the orange of the sandstone gave way to blinding white. The hike was finally over as I began to descent back into the wooded area and caught up with the spur trail which had led us here. Tired and hungry, the most difficult part of the hike was still ahead of me. The mile hike out of the canyon up the very same steep switchbacks I had easily jotted down hours before. Once at the top, dripping with sweat, I bid the Australians farewell and drove to the next vistas and finally back to my camp for rest and relaxation with a six pack of Budweiser purchased from the Ruby's General Store.