Southwestern Utah Vacation: Over to Bryce Canyon

Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park

Today, we are headed over to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We will knock one of our Zion hikes, the Canyon Overlook Trail, off the list as we make our way there.

On the way out of Zion, headed east on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway (Route 9), there are a series of switchbacks up the canyon to reach the top of the plateau.  One of the most notable features is the Great Arch, a blind or inset arch.  It has a rock headwall and is not "see through".

The Great Arch.

The next notable feature is the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel.  Built between 1927 and 1930, the tunnel is just over one mile long.  There are several galleries/windows that provide light, but you'll just have to take a quick look at them as you drive by because you are not allowed to stop in the tunnel.  (From what I have read, there used to be parking spaces near the galleries). Since 1989, trucks and RVs have had to be "escorted" through the tunnel.  What this means is that traffic is stopped and the tunnel becomes one way until the large vehicle (and the cars that are behind it) make their way through.  It looked to me like the system that has been worked out involves a baton.  The ranger on one end of the tunnel, gives the last car in the line behind the truck a baton.  When that car makes it through the tunnel, they hand the baton off to the ranger at the other end and he knows that the last car has come through.

Dump truck coming through the tunnel.

After passing through the tunnel, there are two very small parking areas for the trail-head for the Canyon Overlook Trail.  This easy one-mile hike took us to the overlook for Pine Creek Canyon and the lower part of Zion Canyon.  We again ran into our friends from Vermont and exchanged picture-taking assistance.

Interesting rock formations.

Pine Creek Canyon.

The guys pose for me.

 

Our Vermont friends out on that rock outcrop.

View of lower end of Zion Canyon.  We are standing over the Great Arch.

Champion of the World!

Upon our return to the car, we found that people were looking at some Desert Bighorn Sheep.

King of the mountain.

We stopped again before we left Zion to take some pictures of Checkerboard Mesa.  The horizontal lines were created by layers of ancient sand dunes.  The vertical lines were created by the freeze-thaw cycle.

Checkerboard Mesa.

As we got closer to Bryce Canyon, we could see snow falling off to our east (the direction we were headed).  In the Red Canyon area of the Dixie National Forest, the temperature outside the car was down to 25°F.  With the windchill, it was closer to 15°F.

Snow up on the plateau between Zion and Bryce.

We paid another $25 National Park entrance fee and made our way to the Visitor Center.  One of the hikes I was most interested in doing here was the Queens Garden/Navajo Loop Trail.  We checked in with the ranger to find out about conditions.  It was cold, windy and there were snow squalls.  The ranger told us that he had heard that a number of people had fallen on the trail.  Given the weather and trail conditions, and the fact that tomorrow's weather looked like it was going to improve, we instead decided to drive to the end of the canyon at Rainbow Point and make our way back, stopping at each of the viewpoints.

Boy, that wind was brutal.  We had planned on doing a couple of short paths at some of the viewpoints, like the Bristlecone Loop at Rainbow Point, but we quickly changed our minds.  We got out, took a few pictures and bee-lined it back to the car.  At some overlooks, the view was obscured by wind-driven snow.  At others, the clouds would be blown away revealing the panorama.

Looks like a nice sunny day, doesn't it?

It's snowing in the distance.

View from Bryce Point.

I like collecting pictures of benchmarks.

At Inspiration Point, which actually has three different viewpoints, a woman said it was definitely worth the climb to the farthest and highest viewpoint.  I decided to climb to that point first and visit the other viewpoints on my way down.  I am glad I did because I got a beautiful view of the Bryce Amphitheater.  Bill, who stopped along the way and arrived several minutes after me was greeted with lots of clouds, wind, and snow.

My view from Inspiration Point.

What it looked like when Bill got there a few minutes later.

Headed to hotel, we saw a group of deer in the woods.

 By now it was nearly 5 o'clock and we decided to check into our hotel.  We were staying at the Best Western Plus Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel (that's a mouthful).  This hotel seems to be brand new and is right across the street from Ruby's, one of the few places to eat, especially if you are here off season.  (Ruby's is also a Best Western, but quite a bit older).  Our hotel also had a breakfast buffet which, had we not had the one in Zion, probably would have seemed good.  It was so-so in comparison.  Our room at this hotel was more spacious, and the price was better, but no real view to speak of.  When we got to the hotel, the wind was whipping the snow completely horizontal.  It felt good to get inside.

We went to dinner that night at Ruby's.  They certainly have the market cornered.  The guys all had the (rather expensive) buffet and I had a burger which was very disappointing.  Thank goodness we only had to have one meal here.