Two days in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Pretty sure everyone has heard of Bryce Canyon National Park. Also pretty sure many of you have been, seeing as how about a million people visit the park each year. So this will be a short post!

I must confess, given our experiences with hordes of tourists at some of the other parks (and the fact that I'd already been to both), we actually considered skipping Bryce Canyon and Zion. Fifteen minutes into our visit, we were so very glad we didn't pass this one by!

# of photos similar to this one: 316

The hikes. Over two days we hiked about 15 miles around the Rim-Sunset-Sunrise-Queen's Garden-Peek A Boo loop and the Fairyland Loop Trail.

view from Bryce Point overlook

heading down to Queen's Garden

furry friends on the trail

hitching a ride

hoodoo voodoo

also hitching a ride

cherries from Capitol Reef's Fruita orchard

where's Patrick?

nevermore

descending on the Fairyland Loop Trail

waiting out the thunderstorm

Fairyland indeed

spring in the canyon

happy hikers

columbine popping

also known as "magic"

We also did the scenic drive to Yovimpa Point but that was far less stunning than the hikes in the canyon. Many, many more pictures can be found here...

The campsite. We stayed at nearby Kodachrome Basin State Park for a few nights and visited Bryce Canyon for a day trip on our last day. As I said, 15 minutes into our visit we were hooked, so we decided to chance it (campgrounds here are mostly first-come, first-served). Early the next morning, we arrived at Sunset campground before 9am determined to get a tent site. We stalked people from the car as they packed up (sorry, people) and we were set up and off on our hike by 10:30am. Early birds for the win!

don't remember this campsite #

The campground was fine - a little cramped, a lot crowded and a lot noisy at night, but with plenty of trees and a clean bathroom.

quiet enough for a Scrabble game is okay in our book

The food. It had been over a month - it was time for spaghetti.

lame but delicious!

Misdirected IPA, made in Salt Lake UT

(don't pair with elephants!)

The summary. Hordes of tourists, yes, but you've just gotta do it. Breathe deep, get off the road and onto the trails, and make sure your camera battery is charged!

4 down, 1 to go...