Byrce Canyon & Red Canyon, Utah

May 26, 2016

Memorial Day weekend is fast approaching and we decided to take a drive to Bryce Canyon to try and avoid the mob scene approaching.  The day started off poorly with lousy weather and we almost decided to call it off.  Thankfully, we didn't as it turned out to be a nice day.

We are only about 5 miles from Red Canyon and stopped there first.  There are two tunnels on the road and they photograph very well.  We waited as long as we could to avoid having vehicles in the photos.  Luck was on our side and we got the shots we wanted.

The red rocks are beautiful and sort of reminded us of the Sedona, AZ area.  There are numerous hiking trails in the area along with a great biking/hiking path that meanders along for miles.  

Gerry and I both like to get off the highway and take dirt forest roads to see what is out there.  In this case there was a geocache hidden in the rocks and Gerry "volunteered" to find it.  She is in the middle of the picture trying to stay warm and sign the cache log.  We continued down the road to the point where it got so rough that it was time to turn around.  If we would have had our old Jeep we could have continued more to the back country.

 Next stop on our agenda was to tour the Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park to enjoy it's beauty.  We wound up picking the right day since they weren't so busy that finding parking spaces was a chore. 

They say you look up at Zion Nat'l Park and look down at Bryce to see the hoodoos.  There are a number of scenic view parking areas and we decided to drive the 17 miles to the top and then work our way down.   The views were fantastic even though it was a cloudy day.  We took over 200 photos and won't bore you with all of them, so I selected a few from each viewing area.

Natural Bridge

Panorama view

Hoodoos galore

More hoodoos

 

Another bridge

Yep, we were winded at this point

Forming another arch

Nice balancing act

 We spent so much time looking at the beautiful views that we ran out of time and didn't finish seeing all that we wanted to see.  Rather than continue and not get nice photos we decided that we would return on Tuesday morning after many of the tourists leave.

There are numerous hiking trails in Byrce Canyon but we barely make it walking on level ground.  The air sure gets thin around 8-9 thousand feet.  So we will leave the hikes to the younger set and just enjoy the views.

We were here in 1995 the first time and I remembered an overly officious volunteer giving me a bad time about parking our 30ft motorhome in the site.  We drove around the campground and found the site with a 32ft motorhome in the space.  I hope the volunteer didn't give him a bad time.

The campgrounds are full of rental units and you see people from all over the world touring the canyon.  It's like being close to the United Nations and hearing all the different languages being spoken.  

We had a great day and finally headed back to the RV park for a late dinner of stuffed peppers that Gerry had prepared the day before.  They really hit the spot and we relaxed a while and finally went to bed earlier than usual.   Boy, this rving is a tough job.

Add this place to your "bucket list" if you haven't seen it.  You will love the place.  Goodnight!