Bryce Canyon National Park
Personal Notes
This page offers links to personal notes on hiking, camping in , and exploring Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.
My first visit to Bryce Canyon National Park was in early June of 1971. We camped in one of the campgrounds (I believe Sunset), and hiked down into the canyon to Queen's Garden and that area. Since that time, I've visited at least once in the early 1980s and once in the late '80s and again in the early '90s, then almost annually from 1993 to the present.
Anne and I have hiked every trail within the Park with the exception of the two short connector trails between the Under the Rim Trail and the paved road to Rainbow Point, and the trail that connects the Park to the town of Tropic. Unfortunately, until recently, I was not keeping a journal of our hikes. At some point I will review what's stored in my memory and see if I can reconstruct at least some of the basics about these trails. For now, the more recent experiences will have to do.
Friday, July 16, 2010: July 2010 Visit
A nice bright sunny day. We camped at Red Canyon Campground a few miles to the west of Bryce. Our goal on this day was to take a leisurely hike along the Rim Trail. I wanted to take a few shots of the hoodoos and red rock with my newest Sony digital camera, and just enjoy the scenery.
We hiked from Sunrise to Sunset Point, with the intent of hiking back along the same route. But I pooped out, and so we took the shuttle bus back to the truck. There were not a lot of people out on this morning, but enough to slow our progress at some points. We've seen many more tourists on other occasions, but also many fewer during some of our off season visits, especially in the winter.
We drove the Tacoma over to a little picnic area east of the campground and north of the main Sunrise Point parking area. There are a few tables there with fire pits, drinking water, parking, and some shade here and there from tall pines. We'd driven through this area many times before but had never bothered to stop. We were lucky to get a table when we did, because the rest of the tables filled in quickly.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
It was a cool 58 degrees when we left camp this morning at around 8:00 a.m. There are a few clouds on the horizon. There had been a 5K and half marathon run this morning near the entrance to the park, so there was lots of traffic along the highway.
Our goal on this day was to hike the Sheep Creek and Swamp Canyon connecting trails. We'd done the Swamp Canyon connector once before, when we did the Under the Rim Trail over two days.
On our way through the park there we spotted pronghorn and mule deer crossing the road and off in the roadside meadows. This was the first time, in all of our visits, that we've seen pronghorn within the park, or anywhere in this part of the state.
There is a nice parking area at the trailhead for these two connecting trails, but no facilities. There were several other small groups hitting the trail this morning, but after we got going there was enough separation that we didn't see or hear the others. They may have gone south along the Under the Rim Trail, or stopped along the way to explore.
We finished the hike around 11:30, then drove on south through the park to Rainbow Point, where we used the restrooms (which are modern vault toilets, and then ate our lunch in the shaded picnic area. There were quite a few motorcycle people there on this day. They appeared to be part of a motorcycle touring group, because there was a large support trailer that dished out their food and beverages.
We took a short hike along the rim in the Rainbow Point area, where we could see that it was raining farther to the north, with neat thunderstorms. There are great views from this area, but I'm guessing that many people missed this location because it's so far away from the main section of the Park.
Even though there is a fairly large parking lot near Rainbow Point, there were lots of people, and it was difficult to find a spot to park. There were people waiting for us to move when we reached the truck to leave.
