Day Fifteen: June 24
The Lodge at Bryce Canyon has wi-fi! So, the daily journal can proceed.
Today I drove from Salt Lake City to Bryce Canyon National Park, a shorter drive than yesterday, but I can make this comparison: it took an hour just to drive out of Yellowstone yesterday, and it took an hour just to drive out of Salt Lake city today. I liked the Yellowstone version better! Salt Lake City may have many beautiful areas, but interstate 15 does not go near any of them.
Most of the drive stayed on flat land, with mountains to the east, until the route came upon Bryce Canyon quite suddenly: it was hard to believe the sign that said the park was just a couple of miles away when the landscape looked as bland as a flat plain can be. But then…
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This isn’t Bryce Canyon itself but it’s a preview of what’s coming. The road weaves in an out of National Park land before reaching the park proper, and here a set of hiking trails head out through this smaller canyon. |
Bryce Canyon isn’t in the mountains; it’s carved out of a high, flat plateau that forms the top “step” of a formation called the Grand Staircase, which extends all the way to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, formed when the seabed of the ancient inland sea was uplifted. Instead of folding and wrinkling into mountains, the sediments cracked along fault lines, producing a staircase of plateaus lifted to different altitudes. Erosion then took over carving the edges into all sorts of extraordinary shapes. There’s a whole cluster of National Parks and Monuments close together in this area. I’ll be spending some time in this region, shifting hotels now and again but staying in the same general area, seeing the different parks.
But first, Bryce Canyon.
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The cabins of the Bryce Canyon Lodge have the distinctive look of the CCC, which worked on so much development of the National Parks in the 30s, but in fact they predate that era, and were built in 1917-20 when the Park Service was first becoming the national system it is today. |
I arrived early for check-in, and with plenty of time for a good look around. The Lodge sits right next to the canyon rim, so a short walk from the cabins gives the first look:
Bryce Canyon is pretty compact, with a short scenic drive that won’t take too long to explore; I have two full days here and plan to spend most of them hiking— although I’ll have to be careful.
| The hiking trails mostly descend into the canyon, like Bright Angel trail at the Grand Canyon. On my 2015 trip, I did a 9 mile (round trip) hike down Bright Angel, and the second half, coming back up, was definitely not fun, though I managed it. Now I’m 5 years older and have not spent the intervening time staying in shape. I’ll want to be cautious how far down I go. |  |
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Still, hiking down among formations like these is going to be fascinating, and I won’t want to miss it. Being careful will be the key. |
It was cloudy and threatening rain when I first drove in, but gradually the sun came out. I did a short piece of the scenic drive and took some more canyon view pictures. Here’s a selection:
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One thing I’ve wanted to do on this trip is take a picture of the sky, out here where it’s dark enough to see the stars. I studied up on some photography guides about long exposures to get star pictures. So far I haven’t had the chance, cloudy skies have followed me around, at night even when it was sunny during the day. It’s mostly cloudy over Bryce Canyon tonight as well, but I’ve really got my fingers crossed that here’s where I’ll finally get a clear night. The information at the Visitors Center says that Bryce Canyon has one of the darkest night skies, with the least light pollution, in the continental US, so if I’m only going to get one clear night, I want it to be here!
But meanwhile, it’ll be hiking and scenic driving tomorrow.
Trip Report:
Miles driven today: 275.7
Total miles so far: 3240.1
