21.04 - Day 97 - Bryce Canyon
Sunday 21st April - Bryce Canyon, Utah (Day 97)
Breakfast for the 160 rooms of Bryce View Lodge is in the separate Ebenezer Barn & Grill, and whilst there aren’t many cars outside the rooms there are several coaches, ferried in for one night at a time and off again. In the large hall with round tables and stage at one end for the nightly Country & Western performances is a standard continental breakfast, but as our tastes are standard, especially the kids they’re more than happy with yoghurt, juice, toast, porridge, scrambled eggs.
This to give us the energy for the route suggested in the Visitor Centre - which begins by catching the free shuttle bus from next door into the Park and to Bryce View Point, looking back over the amphitheatre of hoodoos stretched out before us and narrow trails weaving between them after zig zagging into the valley.
The view to the distance extends to the raised plateaus and flatlands under another blue sky day - it’s only a maximum of 20 degrees, but walking around soon makes it feel warmer. The shuttle bus (every 10-15 minutes) brings us one stop back to Inspiration Point also overlooking the amphitheatre from where we join the rim trail for 1.5km, watching and warning the kids as they weave from the snow on the inside to the edge of the precipitous drop on the other side.
At Sunset Point we drop down into the valley, descending on sharp switch bends on the Navjaro trail to walk amongst these magnificent, sometimes gravity defying sandstone structures. Supplementing the Junior Ranger task is ‘I hiked the hoodoos’ which almost stops the kids from occasional whining about hunger and boredom.
Passing through the Queen Victoria Garden and indeed through some hoodoos we finally scramble back to Sunrise Point for a 5km walk - Sienna feeling the effects of altitude on exercise.
A great walk and whilst we weren’t certainly alone it didn’t take away from the magnificence of the scenery. That said the kids' highlight will be collecting their badge and sticker for completing the double task.
After some rest time in the room (i.e. ipad watching) we drive to Fairyland Point and a quick walk to Mossy Cave - which I am glad we didn’t start with. Yesterday afternoon is repeated: a trip to the swimming pool and light dinner in the room. With surprisingly no bribery, the kids have agreed to get up to watch the sunrise in the morning; we shall see.