Our Final Hours at Bryce

As evening set we were quite excited to experience the opening night of the Astronomy Festival and amazing stargazing. Sue and Fletcher walked over to the rim to try to see the sunset at the canyon, and we planned to catch up with them a short while later so we could take the park shuttle bus to the astronomy site...Well, we walked to the canyon rim and looked around...it was beautiful in the fading light, but there was no sign of our friends...we must have passed like two ships in the night because they told us later they headed for the shuttle at about the same time we arrived at the canyon rim. We walked over to the lodge to catch the shuttle, and when we climbed on to the bus, there were Sue and Fletcher!

We rode the bus to the amphitheater stop where everyone piled off and we decided to do the same. We walked up into the woods, aided by dim solar lights, and found ourselves at the amphitheater where the evening astronomy program had already begun. The wind was howling and the temperature slowly dropped, which, combined with a presentation that seemed to go on and on...and on...made for an abreviated attendance...we got up and headed back down the dark path to the shuttle bus stop. We were batting two-for-two on astronomy presentations the past two nights. We hopped on the bus and took it to the very next stop, the telescope site...we had bailed off the bus one stop too early.

By now it is really dark and we make our way from the bus stop to the telescope grounds and finally things were starting to look up (no pun intended)...there in front of us were 50 telescopes!! Well, we could not really see the area well enough in the pitch black to actually count all of the telescopes, but at this point we were willing to accept that there were probably 50, give or take. We approached the first telescope and the guy operating it told us "Well, there's not really much to see at this point due to the clouds...". Are you kidding us?! That's it, we clearly are not meant to star gaze at Bryce Canyon, so we turned and headed back to the shuttle bus stop.

It's interesting when the human brain finally pulls together several disparate data points to create your understanding of your current state...let's see...10:00pm, no moon, no stars, in a national park with no street lights, headlamps and flashlights back at the RV...oh crap, how are we going to find our way back to our campsite in the trees? As we stumbled our way down the dirt road toward our campsite, our eyes straining to make sense out of the vague dark shapes barely discernible from even darker shapes, and our brains trying to remember the curves in the road that would get us back to our RV, the angels smiled down upon us. The guy in the campsite two sites away from ours was sitting at his picnic table working on his laptop, illuminating our RoadTrek as if it were glowing on its own. Thank god for camping geeks. Note to self, always take the headlamps when going out at night...

The next day dawned bright clear and chilly. Our plan was to pack up, vacate our site, and drive over to the rim to hike a trail called Wall Street. Wall Street is a slot canyon trail that is prone to slides and is easily blocked by rocks that fall due to ice wedging early in the season. The last time we were here at Bryce Canyon Wall Street was closed. We learned from the park rangers that it was only opened in the last day and we were really looking forward to seeing it. Well, this Wall Street did not disappoint, it was another spectacular piece of Bryce that we tried in vain to capture in photos...here are a few...

After climbing back to the rim from Wall Street, we decided to drive to the end of the Bryce Canyon road which is 18 miles from the entrance to the furthest point. We climbed into Sue and Fletcher's VW Eurovan Camper for the trip...

Along the 18 mile length of the road are many viewpoints and outlooks, each providing those willing to make the trip with unique views of the furthest reaches of Bryce Canyon. On our way to the end of the road we were fortunate to see three Prong Horned Antelope in a meadow alongside the road...they let us slow to a stop, roll open the side door and take their photo while they took their morning constitution...ah, that's nature you don't often see on Animal Planet.

First stop Rainbow Point:

Black Birch Canyon:

Ponderosa Point:

At the overlook, we saw this Raven who obviously did not have any concerns about all the people around...he just sat there on the stone post looking at everyone. Fletcher says he's sure that bird was there two years ago when he and Sue were last here. In the words of Edgar Allan Poe "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting..."

Now, when we first pulled up at Rainbow Point I saw four very nice Harley Davidsons parked in the lot. Of course it was easy to spot the riders as they stood by the outlook rail in their leathers, taking pictures with their phones...kind of distinct among the hikers and German tourists with big cameas. As it turned out, they had the same idea as we did, and every time we were taking photos at a viewpoint we would hear the approaching thunder of the four Harleys. At Ponderosa Point I finally took a picture of their bikes, and now here's the riddle for you...there were four riders, three men and a woman...which bike belongs to the woman? (Answer to be provided in a later blog post)

Natural Bridge...and, the natural bridge...

And finally Inspiration Point, and there's a reason it's called Inspiration Point...the view is spectacular. From this overlook, you can look down into the canyon and see the trails we had hiked over the past three days, kind of like a 3D map! We were able to see the Peek-a-Boo loop trail and even spot the tree where we had lunch. We were also able to see the Navajo Loop Trail and the trail that emerges from the lower end of Wall Street.

Inspiration Point was the perfect way to end our three day Bryce Canyon experience...what an amazing place to spend time.

We parted ways temporarily with Sue and Fletcher as we departed in our vans for the drive to Ivins. For us there is one last activity to take care of...our RV needs to use the bathroom. We had to stop at the dump station to empty our gray and black tanks, and as we completed this delightful task a light rain shower started...again someone up there was looking out for us. For those staying at Bryce today it looks like they're going to get a litte storm.

After three days of hiking it is time to get back behind the wheel and othe road. It's lunch time, and we decided to stop in Red Canyon for lunch, and if we're lucky we'll catch up with Sue and Fletcher for lunch. As luck would have it, we found our friends at the Red Canyon visitors center, so we had a quick lunch and got back on the road.

Miles driven: 13. Travel time: 15 minutes. Bugs killed: 4 (estimated)