Part Three - The Mighty Five

Day Seventeen - We left Virgin, Utah and headed north towards Cannonville, Utah. The sun was shining, the sky a beautiful blue, the wind was quiet, and we headed to Bryce National Park for the next 5 nights. The elevation at Bryce is 9000 feet and the temperature drops below 32 degrees over 200 days a year. It might be time to get out the winter gear; at the very least an extra blanket will feel good tonight as we are expecting temperatures in the low 30’s. We drove through the desert, past irrigated green fields, open cattle ranching, farms with cattle and sheep, and then began the climb towards Bryce. My favorite part of the drive was traveling through Red Canyon. The sandstone was such a deep red and the formations intriguing. The bluish green pine trees created a striking contrast as they clung to the salmon and red sandstone. I think there are more cattle living in the town of Cannonville than people. The KOA was a welcome sight and we were so thankful for our reservation. There has not been a vacancy at any of the campgrounds we have stayed. We have seen people turned away numerous times after asking for a campsite. Many people are staying at a campground for just a night as they pass from one park to the next. There are 57 RV sites at this park and each site is full. We continue to see a lot of rental RV’s as people from all over the world have come to visit these National Parks. Doug and I stopped at the Grand Staircase National Monument Visitor Center for information about the park and then went to the Bryce National Park Visitor Center to scope it out and plan our time there. While we watched the park’s video we saw a couple that we had met at Zion National Park. It was a great connection as they introduced us to their nephew, Peter, a park ranger at Bryce. Bryce National Park has an 18 mile road into the canyon with lookouts along the scenic drive. Our eyes were searching for an elk; we haven’t seen one yet, but we did get to see mule deer munching on the shrubs and grasses on the edge of the road. The road rose to an elevation of 9100 feet as we stood at the top of the plateau. We could see for miles. The lookout spots gave us a taste of the beauty of Bryce. The landscape is so different from Zion. The pink, coral, salmon, and orange limestone is topped with a small bit of creamy white limestone. We looked across the amphitheater at thousands of hoodoos, the name given to the formations. As the sun began to set the shadows on the hoodoos created an even more beautiful sight.

Peekaboo Adventure

Day Eighteen - We had decided to hike into Bryce Canyon today. The premier hike at Bryce is a 3 mile loop called the “Queen’s Garden Trail.” We descended from the rim about 500 feet and walked among the hoodoos. The hoodoos are fascinating column structures of limestone created by erosion from wind and rain coupled with the frequent freezing and thawing temperatures. The Queen’s Garden trail joined with a more difficult trail called peekaboo loop and since we had all day we decided to try that one too. As we began the Peekaboo Loop the ascent was quite steep and I almost turned around. After a brief break to catch my breath we decided to go for it and I am so glad we did. This trail was the highlight of our trip to Bryce. We hiked through fields of hoodoos, areas that seemed like a barren desert, then we’d top out over a ridge to find ourselves within a pine forest. As we ascended and descended through the amphitheater we were never sure what we would encounter next. After hiking for a few miles in this amazing diverse landscape we crested a hill. This was the perfect lunch spot. We sat on a rock on the edge of the path and just stared at the beauty all around us. We could hardly believe our eyes. What a wonder! We were filled with awe at the grandeur of the scenery stretching far into the distance. The Peekaboo trail led us to the Navajo trail which ascended with a multitude of switchbacks towards the rim. It was a spectacular hike with unending views of hoodoos. While we were on the Peekaboo trail we stopped to take a photo next to three medallion benchmarks. The sign said we could claim a special prize at the visitor’s center if we took a photo next to three of them. I thought this was just a Jr. Ranger program, but Doug was all for it. When we got back to the visitor’s center Doug went straight to the ranger desk while I tried to hide among the merchandise. Doug shared the photos with the ranger and received a very cool sticker that said “I Hiked the Hoodoos.” Thankfully, he asked for one for me too.

Bryce is considered one of the darkest night skies in the lower 48 and the rangers have a stargazing program at 9:30 pm on Thursday nights. They say one can see 7500 stars in the night sky because light pollution is at a minimum. In fact, as we were planning our trip I knew the moon would only be at 3 percent illumination while we were at Bryce. Fortunately for us the night was clear and we headed back to the Visitor Center where the rangers had set up telescopes for our viewing pleasure. We could see Venus next to the moon and Jupiter’s moons were visible too. The ranger told us about the Hercules Globular Cluster that has about 300,000 stars within the constellation of Hercules. Then, he showed us what it looked like in the telescope. WOW! I had never seen anything like it before. I kept thinking of God creating all these stars and most of them we can’t even see. Yet.

Hiking in the desert as the storm approached

Day Nineteen – We had a relaxed start to our day today as we were planned to hike in Kodachrome Basin State Park and it was just a few miles from our campground. After a leisurely breakfast, we packed our lunch and drove the 9 miles to the park. Kodachrome Basin is just 15 miles from Bryce but its formations are totally different. There are red tinged spires that stand alone on the basin floor, some of which are 170 feet tall. We chose the 6.0 mile panorama trail to begin our day. The skies were blue with just a few puffy white clouds in the distance. We grabbed our hydration packs and jumped on the trail. The path was smooth sand and really well marked. The landscape was fairly flat with blue-green sagebrush, a scattering of deep green pinion and juniper trees. The blackish biological soil was covered with dusky grayish blue grasses. Solitary red columns have lines of white sandstone within them. We spot lots of lizards as they run across the path. More than once I jumped as the grasses next to the path rustled. I was always alert to the possibility of a rattlesnake and didn’t want to be surprised by one. At one point we saw something move on top one of the towers and thought we saw two people up there. I was already planning on how we could get up there. We kept walking towards the tower and realized it was two ravens and there was no way we were climbing the steep cliff to get up there. We were amazed at the quietness and the solitude that we experienced on this trail. There were a few people we saw momentarily as they headed in the opposite direction, but otherwise it was just the two of us. It was a great time for reflection and prayer. Suddenly, the clouds began to darken and we realized a storm was brewing. The wind picked up and we saw the rain falling in Bryce, a short distance away. There were many dry washes with evidence of flash floods so we knew that the rain could rush through here. We had hiked about half the distance of the trail so we had a few miles to go to get back to the car. The sound of thunder and a few drops of water on my skin was enough for me to pick up my pace. The clouds didn’t look too menacing, but we didn’t want to be caught out here in a storm so we finished our hike. We had hiked seven miles this morning and now we were ready for our lunch. We found a perfect picnic area with a shelter. Lately we have been laughing about our lunch surprises because we always have a peanut butter sandwich. Well, not today. Today was a real surprise; I had made ham sandwiches and they were delicious! The rain quickly passed, but the sky was still threatening. We drove to a few more lookout areas and decided to call it a day. Curling up in our comfy chairs with a book while drinking an iced tea under the shade of a tree was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Day Twenty – Randy, our bus driver and tour guide, shared a number of stories about Bryce Canyon as we joined him on a three hour tour. Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon- it is a series of amphitheaters- it only has 2 walls of rock. Randy had retired some time back, but he and his wife both fell in love with Bryce, so they work on the weekends and enjoy the area as tourists during the week. He told us stories as he drove out to Rainbow Point, about 18 miles into the park. Bryce Canyon is part of the Colorado plateau which reaches all the way to the Grand Canyon. All of this region makes up the “Grand Staircase.” President Clinton created the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument to help protect this area. While we stood at this highest point in the Grand Staircase we saw the power plant at Lake Powell where we were 6 days ago and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon which is almost 200 miles away. We walked a mile from Rainbow Point to Yovimpa Point, which has an elevation of 9,000 feet, and we got caught in a hail storm. Weather changes rapidly here. We had a mix of sun, rain, hail, thunder and lightning all during our three hour tour.  A number of lightning strikes have left their mark on the trees in the area. I found it fascinating to learn that when lightning strikes a tree the power is so intense it heats the sap within the tree and the tree explodes from the inside. I did do a little bit of a head tilt though when I learned the state bird for Utah is the California Seagull. It seemed strange to have a seagull as a state bird when the ocean is so far away. But when pioneers were settling in Utah swarms of locusts threatened to destroy their crops needed for survival. The seagulls flew in to eat the locusts and saved the crops from ruin. The weather started to get a little dicey while we were on the rim of the Canyon. We caught the shuttle back to our car and headed back to the motorhome to enjoy the rain from inside the motorhome.  Doug and I finished our 40 day prayer challenge and are now reading “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” together. It has led to good discussions as we continue to grow in our faith.

Hiking among the hoodoos

Day Twenty-One - 11 plus miles. 197 flights of stairs. 25,000 steps. We were pretty excited about our accomplishment as we hiked the Fairyland Loop Trail in Bryce National Park today. It was not on my list of things to do because it is listed as a strenuous 8 mile hike with a 1716 foot elevation change. But we had enjoyed the 5.5 mile Peekaboo Loop so much we decided to take the challenge. On our drive to the park we spotted a Pronghorn antelope standing right next to the road. I reached for my camera, but these guys are fast. We learned that a pronghorn will not jump over a fence; they will walk around it until they find a break in the fence and that they can run up to 55 mph – hence no photo. We parked at the Lodge today because the Fairyland Loop parking lot was already full when we arrived. The trail was going to take 4-5 hours and we had already learned creative parking was another way to say ticket and tow. Thankfully, we learned this lesson through observation and not participation. The Lodge parking lot added an extra mile and a half to the trail, but it provided peace of mind knowing our car would still be there when we got back. The sky was clear with a few white puffy clouds as we descended into the amphitheater. The red and orange colors of the hoodoos intensified as the sunshine brought out the variations within the layers of rock. The trail was hard packed limestone and for the first 1.7 miles we descended to the floor of the amphitheater. We passed bristlecone, pinyon, and juniper trees. We saw lizards, prairie dogs, stellar blue jays, and heard woodpeckers in the distance. It was a serene, beautiful hike. The Tower Bridge feature stands within a shady area and we took a short snack break in the shade of the trees. The tower has a window and a bridge within its wall of red limestone. The hoodoo walls around us look like sentries guarding a palace. They reminded me of angels standing shoulder to shoulder surrounding the throne. The way out was up – it was four miles to the top of the rim and as we looked behind us we could see the dark storm clouds moving in. Fast. In fact, we kept staring at the way the clouds were swirling around us. We could hear the wind whistling in the trees and then we heard the thunder. Storms seem to come suddenly and without warning. We had 2 more hours to get up to the rim and then another 3 miles to get to the car. If we looked straight ahead of us the sky was blue so I chose to look that way. Every once in a while though we would be hiking switchbacks and the dark sky was before us. It was a little dicey to think about being caught in a lightning storm without anyplace to take shelter. The park service has signs all over the place telling everyone to stay in their car in a lightning storm. Well, that wasn’t an option for us so we kept walking. The hoodoos were even more beautiful with all the movement in the sky. I couldn’t stop looking at the unique walls of hoodoos among the forest. It was so beautiful that we stopped for a quick lunch. After all, I had packed ham sandwiches and we had carried them all this way; it seemed a shame to carry them all the way to the top before we ate them. The thunder clapped again and again. We gave the mountain the respect it deserved and began to climb the last 1.5 miles. Other hikers were also scrambling to get to the top. The rain began. It was just a few raindrops, but we had already experienced hail in this park. We didn’t know what weather would develop. We got to the rim and had 3 miles to hike to the car. We thought the rim trail was fairly level, but our intel was incorrect as we began to climb towards Sunrise Point. The trail led through a forest and so our eyes were searching for an elk. Unfortunately for us, no elk today. Now that we were on the rim, the wind was strong and we had to hold onto our hats. The raindrops were still small as we finally saw the end of our hike. We walked past the lodge and great news - the car was right were we left it! What a welcomed sight. We headed back to our motor home after a few errands – gas in the car, a few more groceries, our picture in front of the Bryce National Park sign and a stop at the Visitor Center for our second “Hike the Hoodoos” reward stickers.