Utah's National Parks Trip: Day 5 (Bryce Canyon)

We let everyone sleep in as late as they wanted again today and yet were out of the house by 8:15 or so. We had to stop and luckily found a battery for the car rental remote as our battery had died overnight and we had to open the car with the key inside the fob (which set off the car alarm). 

After getting our park sign photo we were in the park by 9 and it didn't seem crowded at all.  

We were warned that both Bryce and Arches can get really, really congested and parking can be a nightmare but we didn't find that at all in either park. I think we just timed it right and got lucky though. We drove the southern scenic drive to the very end at Rainbow/ Yovimpa point (9,115 feet elevation). It was COLD-- just 44 degrees according to the car dash and it was WINDY. We had layered up but we pretty much froze to take pictures at Rainbow point. 

first we passed through this large area that was still recovering from a forest fire

We hiked the Bristlecone loop trail; once we got away from Rainbow point area the wind died down enough that it wasn't too bad. We wanted to see some of the 1,600+ year old Bristlecone pine trees this area is known for.  

we thought this might be Bristlecone pine since it looked so old... 

and its pinecones had these bristles on them... but it wasn't!

these are Bristlecone pines

We got back in the car and stopped at each overlook on the way back to the center of the park-- so we stopped at Black Birch Canyon overlook (8,750 feet elevation):

Then Ponderosa Canyon (8,904 feet) & Agua Canyon
 

It was such a clear day that we could see forever. 

Our favorite was Natural Bridge.

 From there we stopped at Farview Point (8,819 feet) & walked to Piracy Point: 

 Finally swamp canyon was our last pull out on this scenic drive.

 

We drove to Paria view and then ate lunch in the car. It was at this point that we decided that, while beautiful, all of these overlooks and spots and views were starting to look much too much alike to keep stopping. 

We headed right to Sunset Point-- an area that was FAR more crowded but with the help of a ranger or two we were still able to find a place to park. We looked out into the Bryce Amphitheater and debated about taking a hike.. but Alec's knee gave out on him suddenly and his leg was really hurting so we continued on. 

We drove to the visitor's center, watched the movie, checked out the exhibits, and did a bit of shopping. We decided to head out of the park to hike the Mossy Cave/ waterfall hike that sits just outside the main park entrance in another section of the park. Thankfully Alec's knee was feeling a bit better and it's a short .9 mile hike.  We parked in the overflow lot and walked to the trailhead. It was real easy to follow and they had a ranger on the trail to answer questions. 

The river was just a trickle so we didn't expect much from the waterfall hike but we headed the to mossy cave first anyway. We could see water trickling down from the ceiling and got up close with all the colors on the rock faces.

 

Then over to the waterfall. 

see the tiny waterfall in the bottom left hand corner?

We headed back to the car and left for the short ride back to our rental-- on the way we passed through red canyon (which also has lots of hoodoos and even a few tunnels we had to drive through. 

I think we were done in the park by around 1:30 and back at our rental to rest and relax by 2. Other than hiking into the hoodoos which I really wanted to do with the Navajo/Wall Street loop; but wall street was still not open yet for the season, we all felt like we had seen and done pretty much everything we wanted to. 

Others in this series: 

Our Trip by the Numbers 

Day 1: Travel day

Day 2: Canyonlands  

Day 3: Arches 

Day 4: Capitol Reef  

Day 6: Zion 

Day 7: Red Canyon & Travel Home 

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,