Bryce Canyon Area (08-17-22)

 After a week near Cedar Breaks, we moved about an hour or so down the road, still in Dixie National Forest, but just 12 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park. Our intent is to boondock in this area for a few days but we needed to dump our tanks and water up.

We stopped at Red Canyon campground, a USFS campground that had plenty of room. They charge $10 to use the dump station, or $10.50 with our senior pass, for a site for the night. We took the site, which had beautiful views, and went off to explore, looking for a place for boondocking starting tomorrow. Once we found several good spots, we went into Bryce Canyon City and found some ice cream.

Before moving to our new spot, we hiked the Buckhorn Trail, which starts and ends in the campground....it connects to longer trails, but we didn't have enough time to do any more than that.

The trail leads to a ridge, and has great views along the way. Good thing, because although I made past one area with steep drop offs on both sides, I couldn’t make it past the second one. I sent Paul to take some pictures and waited for him. While I was waiting, another couple came along and I had to find a spot to squish in, so they could pass me on the narrow trail. They ended up turning back as well.

Once that hike was done we moved the rig to our new boondocking spot and left to explore some more. We checked in at the nearby visitor center, and hiked the 1 mile interpretive trail. It was getting a bit warm to do the extra 1.5 mile we had planned on doing. Instead we drove a scenic route through the national forest, past a (boring looking) reservoir.

Our "big" hike was a 6 mile hike using a combination
of trails- Cassidy and Rich trails, with a stop over on the Ledges trail. The scenery was interesting, and we only saw a couple of other hikers on the trail.

We reached our first overlook about a mile and a half in.

I was glad I had downloaded the local hiking map since there were several combinations of trails , and I had to check to make sure we were taking the one we wanted.

About 4 miles in we came to the ledges... they are literally ledges, where you can look over and see for miles. From there it was just walking, to finish the trail.

After hiking in the heat for 6 miles, the next day we were looking for something shorter so we headed first to the Tunnel Trail.

I am not sure why they call these tunnels, they are the shortest tunnels I have ever seen, but it is neat to drive through them.

The trail was under a mile, but it seems to go straight up, so its a good, if brief, work out.

Our next hike that day had the name of Mossy Cave. It isn't really a cave, its more of a grotto, but the trail also includes a waterfall and a stream, and they were pretty cool.

If we had brought water shoes it would have been fun to walk the trail in the water.

After the hike we went to the Escalante Visitor Center and had our picnic lunch.

By then the storm clouds in the distance looked pretty serious, so we decided to "chase" them and explore at the same time. We never did catch up to the rain, but we saw a sign for Kodachrome Basin State Park, so we made plans to visit it the next day.

Kodachrome Basin State Park isn't huge, but its very well laid out and taken care of. The Rocks are what you would expect to find in this area although not as colorful as some. We started by hiking the Angel's Castle trail, which was almost entirely a rock trail, my favorite.

Whenever the trail got too narrow for me, I sent  Paul out so I could take his picture.

Once that hike was done, about a mile and a half or so, we headed back to the visitor center where the rangers were busy cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for all the guests.  We had brought lunch but we decided we could save it for another day.  I asked how often they cook for visitors and he said “once a year”.  Guess we were just lucky. It’s Military Appreciation Day in the park, and everyone gets a free lunch.

Letting our lunch settle, we drove the scenic drive before hiking our second hike of the day.  The dirt road led to Chimney Rock.

The park was named Chimney Rock State Park at one time, but when National Geographic was filming here in the 1940s, they noted that the colors were as vibrant as Kodachrome film- and with permission from Eastman Kodak, the name was changed to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Our second hike, the Panorama Trail was longer, at about 3.5 miles.  It is a loop that passes by several “named” rock formations, such as “the Ballerina”.

On the way home the distant mountains were lit up by the sun!

When I read my blog post about our first and only visit to Bryce Canyon National park 12 years ago, my last sentence said I was glad we saw the park but I won’t hurry back any time soon.  Well, I guess I meant that, because although we debated going into the park for a hike, we left the area without doing it.