Bryce Canyon

Last week, after we left Saint George, we went to Bryce Canyon. None of us had ever been there, so we were excited to see something new!

We got to the park around 8:30 a.m. and got a parking spot near the Navajo Loop trailhead. We ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the picnic tables for breakfast and had a potty break before hitting the trail. 

Scotty told us that it was a quick one-mile hike.. 

Lies.

It's a 1.3 mile hike, and normally the .3 mile difference doesn't matter, but when you descend 515 feet and have to climb back up, it matters a little bit. I basically imagined it being a nice, little walk. I would have dressed and prepped completely differently if I'd known the truth. 

Going down

Going up

Possibly true

Normally this hike is a loop, but they had part of it closed, so we had to go down and back up the same way. The weird thing is that my "difficult" children (you never know which ones are going to be the "difficult" ones, as they all take turns... except Nicky. He's fine on hikes) gave us the most grief on the way down instead of the way up. Based on how they behaved on the way down, I was dreading the hike back up, thinking we'd never get them out of there, but they were much better on the way up!

I'm not sure what that was all about, but it just goes to show... children are unpredictable!

"Thor's Hammer" as viewed from the beginning of the Navajo Loop

After several days of very little sleep, this hike was about all I could handle for the day. We were all pretty wiped out, so we spent the rest of our time in Bryce Canyon just going to lookouts. That's one nice thing about the park - there is a lot to see with very little effort. 

Take this arch, for example:

It's just right off the roadside. It's not very often you get to see a natural arch without working for it!

This raven was hanging out at one of the lookouts, and he was quite the charmer! He wasn't scared of people, and we were able to walk right up to him. 

I wondered if I might get too close and end up being one of those people who get shamed online for approaching wildlife in a national park. Would I be the lady who got attacked by a raven? Would I lose an eye? 

I know not to approach a bear. But what are the rules with ravens? Will they eat your face?

Wildflowers on the roadside

One of the lookouts had a hot dog food truck, which I've never seen in a National Park before. We thought it was genius! We got some hot dogs and pretzel bites for lunch.

We also had a potty break, and I took Zoe and Eva in the outhouse with me, and I had Eva hold my phone while I went to the bathroom. Then I caught her taking pictures of me on the toilet, and we had a nice "talk" in which my voice was very loud, and everyone outside the bathroom got to hear me.

We spent a few hours going from lookout to lookout. Our girls were totally bored and refused to get out of the car at most of the stops. I didn't fight them even though inside my heart I was lecturing them about missing out on the beauties of the earth and all that. 

Before we headed out of the park, we stopped at the visitors center and got the kids' passport stamps and cancellations. The visitors center was packed! And we ran into Scotty's cousin there. Funny how we run into people we know when we're so far away from home (we ran into one of Scotty's co-workers in San Francisco a few years ago, and we always see people we know in Disneyland). 

We got a kick out of the bathroom lines in the visitors center. There were about seven men standing outside the bathroom in a line, and there was no line at the women's restroom. That was a phenomenon that deserved documentation!

Outside of Bryce Canyon, Scotty and Nicky took a short hike to see a cave and waterfall. I stayed in the van with the girls - there was no way we were getting them on another hike at that point.

Then we went to Old Bryce Town and got some ice cream and sarsaparilla. 

Old Bryce Town

We also stopped by the Red Canyon National Forest visitors center for another passport stamp, but we didn't do any exploring there. We just enjoyed the scenic drive.

That evening, we stayed at a motel in Hatch, Utah. On Saturday morning, we were hoping to catch the hot air balloon launch at the Panguitch Hot Air Balloon Rally, but we couldn't drag our butts out of bed in time. A week of camping and vacationing can do that to you! Fortunately we saw some of the balloons on Friday morning as we headed to Bryce Canyon.

It was really cool to drive under them. Some of them hovered just barely overhead. 

We had originally planned to make a few stops on the way home, but since we were so tired, we drove straight home, and we'll save those adventures for another day.