I realize that I’ve never written about Bryce Canyon. My reasoning until this year was that lots of people have already done it, but I’ve got the time now, so might as well.
Reviewing the photos from our 2017 trip, I was struck by this one which shows the formations hovering between regular and random in a weird, fractal way. I’d love to try to program this landscape, but it’s probably beyond my ability and patience. It’s got the most complicated surface area of anyplace I’ve been.
We visited in May, when it’s still cool at Bryce’s 8000 foot elevation. It snowed a little. On our most ambitious day, we did the popular Navajo and Peekaboo loops as a figure 8, added Queen’s Garden and a bit of the Rim Trail. Probably 10 miles in all, with a lot of up and down for over 1000 feet of total elevation gain.
The Wall of Windows is visible from the Peekaboo trail. The windows are natural arches formed by freeze / thaw, unlike the ones at Arches National Park, which are formed by wind.
The tops of the hoodoos have a variety of shapes; a few are named. One is “Queen Victoria”. (I can imagine her saying “we are not amused” about this comparison.)
The following day we did some of the Fairyland trail, but it rained and snowed and we gave up. We drove the 75 miles to Zion National Park, where it was still raining but much warmer. The weather felt like half a season later.
Daring Dayhikes 