Bryce Canyon NP

We didn't sleep through the alarm on Saturday morning. We woke up around 7am and broke our camp down in record time. It's not like it takes a long time to pack up a backpacking tent and a couple of sleeping bags, but it's always fun to see how fast we can go. The beauty of minimalist camping.

We made sure to get on the road early, since it was Saturday. Since most people camp Friday-Sunday, we figured the odds of finding a spot for just Saturday night might be slightly lower.

The drive from Capitol Reef to Bryce Canyon was a good one! It took us through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was awesome. I wish we'd had a day or two to spend there. Parts of the drive were along narrow ridges with steep drop-offs on either side. We put it on the list to explore next time.

We arrived at the Bryce Canyon entrance around 10am. There are three campgrounds located inside the park and we ended up finding yet another gem of a site at the North Campground. We didn't have any close neighbors, which is always nice. I'm glad we arrived when we did, because all the campgrounds were full within a couple of hours.

We set up the tent and our sleeping bags. And this is where it's time to take the tour of our living quarters. We had our small Mountain Hardware backpacking tent and went without the rain fly most nights. The roof is mesh so we could see the stars at night. I experimented with our bedding a little bit and came up with a fantastic method. While shopping in SLC, we picked up an inexpensive sheet set. I used the fitted sheet to hold our Thermarest sleeping pads together. I placed the flat sheet on top of that, and zipped our sleeping bags together to create a comforter (a little funny-shaped since we had our mummy bags, but it worked). This was the best set-up for a couple of reasons: I toss and turn a lot when I sleep so the combination of sleeping bag/sleeping pad/pillow on a nylon tent floor usually equals chaos and poor sleep. Also, it was 55-60 degrees at night and our sleeping bags are rated for 20-degrees, so we would have been way too warm zipped inside of them. Our method worked out very well!

And the camp kitchen, also known as the trunk of the car, worked nicely for the week. We bought a collapsible cooler in SLC (ended up being able to bring it home too) and used an extra suitcase as a pantry. Everything stayed nice and organized, just the way I like it! All cooking was done with our single-burning backpack stove. It worked out well. While we have every outdoor gadget known to man (thanks to my time working at REI), it's nice to get back to basics and keep things nice and simple.

Okay, back to Bryce Canyon:

We decided to drive to the southernmost viewpoint and work our way back north toward the campground. Our first stop was Rainbow Point, where we went on our first hike. The Bristlecone Trail was a short 1-mile loop... nothing fancy, but a nice way to get out, stretch our legs, and get used to the 8000-9000 foot elevation.

After our short hike, we poked our way back north, stopping at various points and getting out to admire the views. We saw a big herd of pronghorns along the way.

Eventually we made it back down to the main two viewpoints (called Sunrise and Sunset) and took off on a very-anticipated hike to Queen's Garden and around the Navajo Loop. As I mentioned, I hadn't done any research and had no idea what to expect other than this hike is supposed to be amazing. And it was!

The only issue about the hike: it went straight down into the canyon. Meaning we were in for a heck of a climb to get back out! The terrain was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The pictures don't even give it justice... it's one of those places that everyone really needs to see at some point in their life. We hiked down into the Queen's Garden and continued on along the Navajo Loop. At one point we came across a garden of cairns, so we stopped and built one ourselves.

The climb out took us past a great view of Thor's Hammer, and 20 switchbacks later, we were back at the canyon rim. What a great, exhausting hike!

We had dinner and drove into town for a little while. There were some touristy shops including a cool rock shop. We wandered around until after dark, grabbed some ice cream, and headed back to camp. We had a 3G signal so (almost ashamed here) we watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother before falling asleep.

Sunday morning, we woke up thinking we'd break camp and find a place to camp between Bryce Canyon and SLC. But I wasn't ready to leave yet and suggested one more short hike. Yeah, that "short hike" turned into a 6-mile hike back into the canyon! We picked the Peek-a-Boo Loop, a wonderful trail that wound all over the canyon. We hiked through hoodoos, along skinny ridges, and among fir trees. The guidebook rated it as strenuous, and it certainly was. But it was fantastic. Again, the pictures just don't do it justice. I can't wait to take Owen and Logan someday.

In the picture below, Chris is pointing to the ridge where we began our hike. While we were happy with the distance we'd covered, we also well aware of the fact that we still had to hike all the way back :)

After the impromptu hike, we had a quick lunch and jumped back into the car and started to make our way toward SLC. The plan was to find a place to camp somewhere in the middle to break up the 4-hour drive. However, the weather was beginning to look a little iffy. We stopped at Yuba State Park on the Sevier Bridge Reservoir, but it was pretty windy. We've camped in the rain plenty of times, but we were also being mindful of the fact that packing wet gear into a suitcase and flying it home wasn't going to be fun.

So, I logged onto Hotwire.com and booked a hotel room in Provo. I love that website and we've gotten some great deals using it. Anyway, we saved about $30 on a pretty nice hotel, and continued on to Provo. And let me tell you, I couldn't get into the shower fast enough! We hadn't showered since Tuesday morning (and it was now Sunday evening). Gross, you might be thinking, but scented baby wipes are a great thing to have. And I've perfected hair washing with the water from my hydration pack. So really, we did still smell nice after 6 days. And you know me... I'm not ashamed to admit if I stink :) Anyway, we kicked back in the comfort of our hotel and relaxed for the night! Next day... SLC and a day closer to home!