Best hike so far. I’ve loved Bryce Canyon since the first time I saw it back in 2010. The landscape is unlike anything anywhere. Even Cedar Breaks, which is remarkably similar, is lacking in hoodoos and hikeable trails. Today’s 14 mile journey through the entire northern part of the park was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
You can check out our track and lots of pictures here.
Our plan today was to spend the entire day at Bryce Canyon so we needed a hiking plan that would take up all of that time. I settled on a plan that would have us hike, rather than drive, into the park. The hotel we’re staying at is in the town of Tropic, UT on the Eastern edge of the park. A short drive from town brought us to a small dirt road with a dirt parking circle next to a ladder over a barbed wire fence. After gearing up we climbed over the fence and set off on the Tropic Trail. As sketchy as our entry into the park seemed it was actually totally legit and the trail was well maintained from the start. Over the course of 2 miles we climbed up through forest and into the main part of the amphitheater.
Once we were in among the hoodoos our first goal was to hike the peak-a-boo loop. The more difficult of the two loops in the amphitheater. Although the hiking was tough it was worth it since the views were amazing and there was a dearth of other hikers.
After completing the peak-a-boo loop we took a short connector to the Queen’s Garden trail and were immediately surrounded by masses of people. These were the same people who would happily walk into thermal features as Yellowstone. We made it through them though and hiked up to the Bryce Canyon Lodge.
Somehow in our previous two visits we managed to never visit the lodge. I’m glad we did this time since it is just as cool as the ones at Zion, Yosemite, or the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Lunch was fabulous: a club sandwich and fries with a well-earned beer for me.
Since we had “hiked the hoodoos” and the girls were interested in becoming junior rangers once again we hiked an extra 1.2 miles back to the park entrance to visit the ranger station. I was a bit bummed that they had done away with the pins they were giving out last year and changed over to stickers. The girls also decided that they would skip becoming junior rangers since it would require attending a ranger led program that didn’t start for several more hours.
We were severely tempted by the shuttle buses running to our next destination, but persevered and hiked the 1.5 mile to Sunset Point. We descended back into the amphitheater on a series of switchbacks tucked among the hoodoos. The last leg of our journey brought us back down the Tropic Trail, over a ladder, and back to Fred.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so dirty and exhausted before. We all pulled off our boots to finally let our feet breathe. On the short drive back to the hotel we pulled numbers for shower order. When Molly offered to trade me her number two I jumped on the opportunity. Sadly, there was no hot water and the freezing water was quite the refreshment I was looking for.
I did get a bit clean though. I also got in a quick nap and a good dinner. We’re planning to make tomorrow a bit more low key after today’s hike took us the distance
