Bryce Canyon

Trip Start Sep 18, 2009
1
21
25
Trip End Nov 03, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of United States  , Utah,
Wednesday, October 21, 2009

OMG it was cold this morning. It was below freezing last night so there was frost everywhere when we left. We headed out of Ely and it wasn't long before we entered Utah from Nevada. From the 50 we headed onto Highway 20 which had not much at all to see except little lost towns with a few houses and not much else. As we headed towards Beaver we passed the biggest copper mine in the world? USA? Northern Hemisphere?. Anyway it was BIG. The town next to it was called Minersville. At Beaver we hit the Interstate. It was fun to drive at 70mph  (110kph) for about 20 miles before we had to turn off and head into the hills again. The road to Bryce Canyon is a National Byway and we passed through Red Canyon to get to Bryce. It was spectacular so we knew Bryce was going to pretty special.

We stayed at Ruby's campground. Ruby's was started by a rancher called Reuben (Ruby) Syrett in 1923 and his family are still running the Inn which is now a small town of its own including the campground we stayed at Ruby's
Ruby's
 .

The next day we arrived at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. We went straight past the visitor centre so had a quick look at the eastern side of hte canyon. The canyon is relatively small but very special because of its red colouring and the spires and hoodoos created by millions of years of erosion. It is not technically a canyon because it wasn't carved out by a river but by erosion of the softer rock.
 We went back to the visitor centre where the girls received their Junior Ranger books. We went to a ranger talk about the geology of the canyon. We decided to hike the Navajo Loop trail which was a short trail (only two miles long) but it went down to the floor of the canyon on a series of switchbacks. We walked through a section where the walls were very close together. It was a great experience to hike into the canyon. Bryce Canyon is just breathtaking and we think it was the prettiest so far.It was hard work hiking out. The switchbacks to go back up seemed to go on forever and the girls were doing a lot of complaining. In the end, we started counting each switchback and were finally at the top by the time we counted to twenty.

We were all very tired by this stage so we had lunch in the RV, the girls finished their junior ranger worksheets which included picking up some litter and we headed back to the visitors centre. The girls were sworn in as Bryce Canyon junior rangers and we headed back to the campground. We headed down to Ruby's Inn to use the heated pool and spa which was very soothing for the sore muscles. At the campground, that afternoon, a herd of about 15 mule deer were feeding at the campground.

After a few nights of eating in we decided to treat ourselves with dinner at Ruby's Inn all you can eat Cowboy buffet.
Slideshow Print this entry