Day12 Bryce Canyon Tour Day

** PHOTOS ADDED BUT NEED ORGANISING **
For the past few days, the start of the day has been blue skied and sunny then about 11 the clouds would come in with some rain then for the rest of the afternoon though it would become very hot it would be duller and always with a risk of rain. In view of this, we decided last night that we should start a walk down into the amphitheatre early morning leaving a driving tour for the afternoon.

When my phone alarm went at 7:10 I didn't feel like getting up. I hadn't slept well and was very tired and my stomach was a bit dodgy, however we pushed on and not bothering with a shower we had breakfast in the room and were out and at walk start at Sunset Point for  9 o'clock start.

Early on descent

Even at this hour, there were plenty of people about though they were good company. The Walk was only 2.8 miles but dropped 600 feet down into the amphitheatre to wander amongst the Hoodoo's. A gradual winding drop, it was already hot and by the time we reached the top again, the 2 litres of water we had with us was gone. The rim is around 9000ft and we have been at 6 to 10,000 for the last 3 days so have acclimatised quite well but though 9,000ft is not that high it is still noticeable that oxygen isn't as forthcoming.

The experience of this walk can only really be told in pictures, the descent was gradual and winding through orange rock and in the valley bottom dried up stream bed wandered amongst fir trees and coloured rock towers.

We found the ascent easier than expected. A narrow track made its was through narrow canyons and gained height quickly in a constant series of tight switchbacks. The massive advantage of this geography was that the canyon's steep narrow sides kept us in the shade for most of the climb. By the time we reached the rim shortly after 11 the heat was stifling and clouds were appearing. As we reached the car the first drops of rain fell.

Route back up

We changed our address to Smug Lane, Smug, Smug City.

Driving down to the Lodge in the National Park, we headed for the a general store which served sandwiches, pretzels and drinks which we enjoyed on the patio outside.

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel for a shower and change of cloths. I caught up with some planning and notes for blogging and Lynne washed a few tee shirts and underwear before we headed out to the Park again.

A road runs right through to the end of the Park, which is actually a small one with several view points along. We drove straight through to the end mainly in rain but the clouds parted when we reached Rainbow Point and we went for a 1hr amble through the pine woods seeing remains of Bristlecones (talked of in Capitol Reef post). From there, we moved along the road stopping and looking at views as we went including at a natural arch.

We revisited Bryce Point from last night as the best view of all. Today the light is still high and shadows form amongst  the hoodoos. The view changes constantly with light but we think the morning light was the best. A final view point Inspiration Point just because it meant we could see the area we had walked then off to a Pizzeria near the lodge where we had an excellent salad, pizza and beer meal.


Returning to Ruby's Inn city we wandered through the shops, owned by the same people as the Hotel, Garage and Campground. Ruby's Inn city was founded in 2007 :).

Back to our room with some beers from the Ruby's Inn general store to TV, blog writing and bed.

Statistics: Miles today: 78 miles; Miles so far: 1803; Fuel today nil gals;  Fuel so far: 59.999 gals; States: Utah; Time Zone: Mountain (UK-7)

08:30-20:00