Bryce Part 3

On Saturday, August 22 we drove over to Grosvener Arch and Kodachrome Basin State Park.  Grosvener Arch is part of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and is 10 miles past Kodachrome on a dirt road.  After having seen so many arches, Grosvener Arch was OK, but the drive out was really pretty.

Many of the national parks lease their land to farmers to graze cattle.  There are signs all over the place warning you of potential cattle crossing the road.  Today we actually saw some cows.

An example of dirt roads in Utah 

They did not seem to care that we were driving by

Grosvener Arch

Another cow and note the change in color of the road.  It changes with the color of the rocks that are around it 

The picture above and all the ones below are in Kodachrome Basin State Park

Lots of places in Utah to do Jeep commercials

Bryce Part 2

On Friday, August 21st we hiked the Fairyland Canyon Trail.  It is an 8 mile loop that goes down for 1800 feet to get to the canyon floor, you hike up and down over a few ridges and then go up 1800 feet to hike over a few more ridges.  It was quite a hike.  I am pretty sure it was my longest hike ever!  I was TIRED when we finished but really happy we had done it.  Wayne and I both took LOTS of pictures.  For this blog post I asked Wayne to pick out his favorites of the pictures he took to share with you.  Fairyland Canyon is famous for it's hoodoos and colors.

Wayne thought these looked like chess pieces

These are big hoodoos...that speck on the trail is me

Crossing a ridge to get to another canyon...kind of narrow!

Bryce Part 1

On Wednesday, August 9th it was time to head to Bryce Canyon.  We picked up a few groceries before leaving town.  We checked into Ruby's RV Park in Bryce City.  Instead of staying in the regular campground we were offered the space called Escalante Grand View #3.  It was on a rise overlooking Powell Point, a beautiful view for a week!  We also signed up for the bus tour the next morning which the lady at the desk highly recommended.   We then drove to the Bryce Canyon Visitor center and two overlooks.  And we walked to Ruby's General store and the Old Town Shops.

On Thursday we took the free bus tour to Rainbow Point.   Spike, our driver, was very entertaining and knowledgeable about the park as well as the local area.  It was a great introduction to Bryce Canyon.  We stopped at many of the overlooks. At each overlook we walked around and Spike pointed out famous things, rocks and hoodoos that had been named and told us interesting information.

In the afternoon we went to the Cannonville Visitor Center and the Red Canyon Visitor Center.  We drove over to Panguitch to get groceries and see the sites.

Escalante Part 6

Tuesday, August 18th was our last day in Escalante.  On Wayne's to do list was to hike a slot canyon.  Peek-a-Boo and Spooky are two well known slot canyons in the area.  We had been talking to others in the campground who had done these and they sounded a little challenging for me.  There was a third slot located near these called Dry Fork.  It sounded PERFECT to me.  Walk in, no climbing, no water and great hike, I agreed to do this one and look at the other two.   We had to drive 26 miles down Hole-in-the-Rock Road (dirt road that was more washboard than smooth with some sandy spots),  then turn on to the access "road" to the slots.  The first mile was a 4 wheel drive road.  The second mile could only be called a ditch.   Wayne and the Jeep met the challenge!

Hole-in-the-Rock Road

Access road to the slots...more like a ditch

Once you have made it down the ditch/road to the parking lot, you have to hike into the gulch down a slick rock wall.  Dry Fork Slot was as promised.  I loved it and got some great pictures.  We met a nice couple, Bob and Charlene, at Dry Fork and ended up spending the rest of our time in the canyon with them.  We also ran into our neighbors at the campground, Greg and Nicole, and they were headed to Peek-a-Boo when we were.  Greg and Nicole did all of  Peek-a-Boo and Spooky.  Wayne went in to Peek-a-Boo and decided to leave it to the young and agile so he came back out.  Bob, Charlene, Wayne and I headed to Spooky.  All of us went to the first tight spot (take off your pack and squish your body through).  Charlene decided to not try it.  I went through it to prove I could and then came out.  Bob and Wayne continued on for a while.  Bob made it as far as he could, Wayne was able to squish his way further but decided that was enough.  Fun morning.

All of the above are from Dry Fork

Wayne after scrambling to the opening of Peek-a-Boo

View inside of Peek-a-Boo taken before Wayne came down

Outside Spooky

This is the wider part at the opening of Spooky

Lizard along our hike back to the car

We drove back out the ditch and back down Hole-in-the-wall road.  We had our picnic lunch at Devil's Garden.  We decided to try another dirt road, Cedar Wash Road.  We did the hike to Cedar Wash Arch.  After the hike we took Cedar Wash Road all the way back to Escalante.

Cedar Wash Arch

We enjoyed our stay in Escalante and there are still things we have not done so we may have to go back one day.