All of the books had bent corners and ragged covers, and the local ones had check marks alongside each hike in the table of contents. We knew that the books were well used, and we thought that any job that allows for this much adventure can't be half bad. Or any bad.
But back to this trip. We found a guidebook for hikes in Southern Utah, and knew that one of the area's five National Parks would be where we were heading. We didn't know much about any of them, but we picked Bryce Canyon based and a fun-looking hike description and a photo of Navajo Wall Street (we'll get to that in a second). The other options were Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, or Zion National Parks, but those would have to wait for another trip.
I took this photo with my phone, so that I would have a copy of it when we were in the canyon (without having to lug the whole guidebook), but this seems like a good place to drop it in.
Pulling into Bryce, the park looked pretty, but not necessarily National. You see the horse corrals for the guided tours, and a fake western town for the international travelers.
But then we hopped on the National Parks Service shuttle, and got dropped off at the trail head. Ah, that's why it's a National Park.
I can't overstate how striking that was. The shuttle bus drove through a wooded area that blocked any sort of canyon view. Then we walked over a small hill to get to the lookout point and were completely floored.
The park encompassed two neighboring canyons (the first one spans the photo above). Our hike was going to take us down into both, which of course meant that we'd have to climb out of both. My aunt wasn't particularly excited about that part, but we knew she would be fine. And if not, there was always the NPS Search and Rescue helicopter.
Aimee and Judy heading down:
The hike began by taking us though Navajo Wall Street. The name makes sense.
The view from the bottom:
I love slot canyons, and this was one of the most striking ones that I've been through. It was also remarkably approachable. The trail was well maintained, and there were handrails for the steeper sections. The National Parks Service really deserves some kudos for how they manage Bryce (and really, every other park that I've been to). The approachable trail, shuttle bus, well-made maps and free guidebooks really opened this park up to people who may not otherwise be inclined (or able) to see this sort of scenery. Which really is the purpose of the National Parks Service, to showcase our shared environmental and cultural heritage. This park was a perfect example. Well done, NPS.
At the bottom of the slot canyon, most of the park's visitors completed the small loop to head back up to the trail head. But the three of us turned off down a side trail to explore the rest of the park. This took us through the Peekaboo Loop (map above) to explore the other canyon. The main canyon has the red rocks and striking hoodoos (rock spires) that makes the park famous. The south canyon was equally beautiful, but looked like it was in another state entirely. The geology was completely different, and there was quite a bit more vegetation. It's amazing how much a slightly different sun and wind pattern can completely change the landscape.
By this point, we had already climbed out of one canyon, and were at the bottom of the second one. We had plenty of water, and Judy was probably in better shape than I was. But around this point, she began openly asking me why I took her on this never-ending death march. I reminded her that we had already climbed out of a canyon once, and that the scenery was more than a sufficient distraction. But Judy struck up a conversation with a passing hiker (actually every passing hiker), and they just had to mention that our end point was actually 500 feet higher than where we started. Judy took this as irrefutable proof of our impending demise.
Of course, I wasn't immune to looking-upitis. See that little black speck on the top of the cliff?
That's a person standing where our trail ends.
There was absolutely no chance that I was going to tell Judy that little fun fact.
But we kept going up...
And up...
And up.
An hour or two later, we very proudly reached the top (for the second time). Judy said, non-ironically, "Hey, that wasn't so bad."
It was an absolutely stunning hike, and we all agreed that it was one of the best that we'd ever been on. The ups and downs got us a bit more exercise than we were planning on, but it was more than worth it. Plus, it gave us a great excuse to grab some ice cream in the guest center on the way out. The National Parks Service really did think of everything.
