Bryce Canyon – July 17th & 18th

After our very relaxing night and much needed sleep in the tiny town of Glendale, Utah, we took our time before getting going at about lunchtime, and headed towards Bryce Canyon National Park.

ON our way to Bryce Canyon we passed through the Red Canyon area where there’s supposed to be some pretty cool (or hot actually!) mountain biking trails – but as there’s no town of any sort there and we didn’t have bikes (not to mention it was HOT!) we had to bypass that.

Red Canyon

So we headed on to Bryce Canyon to see the canyon from the different viewpoints – Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration and Bryce Viewpoints – all pretty amazing!

We went on a short walk to the ‘Queen’s Garden’ part of the canyon, and discovered just how much harder things are at over 8000 feet altitude, the highest we’d been yet! The canyon is quite steep… J Lawrie jogged on the canyon rim trail from one viewpoint to the next one, a couple of km, and it was significantly harder than usual! (although possibly lots of sitting in the car didn’t help either…?)

First view of Bryce Canyon

How trees grow in Bryce Canyon

Another gorgeous little chipmunk

Some of the hoodoos up closer

Before heading back to Inspiration Point for the sunset, we drove around the park a little more, and saw some adorable little fawns, as well as a whole bunch of Pronghorn Antelope! So that was pretty cool!

Two adorable little mule deer fawns we saw from the road

Pronghorn Antelope

Then sunset at Inspiration Point, after struggling up the hill to the lookout again J and although the sun set behind the lookout rather than over the canyon, it was beaut!

Sunset from Inspiration Point

Then we got up to see the sunrise in the morning, over the canyon this time! So back to Inspiration Point it was… Except the clouds were strategically placed right over the horizon/edge of the canyon, so there was no lovely sunrise or morning sun over the red rock canyon! All the same, it was great J Then while Lawrie slept in the car, I walked the Navajo Rim Trail down into the Canyon – LOTS of switchbacks down and back up, and lots of cool parts to see! On the way there we also saw a rare Utah Praire Dog, which was cool – pretty different to what we’d seen so far, sort of a mix between a squirrelly sort of thing and something more slow and waddley…

Utah Prairie Dog

The 'Sentinel' from the Navajo Loop Trail

'Thor's Hammer' from the Navajo Loop Trail

Looking down at some of the switchbacks on the Navajo Loop Trail