First long trip with the TM

[Gwenne & Len]

gorgeous place!! you remind me how beautiful it is there......maybe we need to go through Yellowstone on our way home from our spring trip.......we'll be so close......

[inghamm]

We traveled on to Twin Falls to see our nieces and their families.We camped on their driveway. On the way we visited Craters of the Moon, which is basically lava flows. Then we stayed at Willard State Park in northern Utah for a night.

[inghamm]

Spent our first day at Bryce Canyon National Park today. It’s amazing scenery. We are going to bed early and getting up at 5:15 to catch the sunrise in the park tomorrow, and then do our challenging hike (for us) down into the canyon and back up.

[inghamm]

2nd Day at Bryce Canon NP
We wanted to get some sunrise pictures so we got up at 5:15, and headed out at 6:30. Got to Bryce Point at 7:00 and dashed out to the point. DW with just one sweatshirt on, me with 2 sweatshirts, but neither of us with gloves. It was 28 degrees with a pretty good wind going, and still 30 minutes before sunrise, so while we were able to stake out a pretty good spot at the viewing area, we were pretty frigid by the time the sun came up.
Then we headed off to Sunrise Point for our big hike “Navajo Loop Trail” down the canyon and back up. We did wait for things to warm up a bit. We started off at 9:30, temperature up to 34 degrees, so we started with 2 coats each plus hats and gloves, but it did warm up as we went. For the final climb back up with the switch backs we were both in t-shirts. The end of the hike was going up “Wall Street” which is a slot canyon – very narrow and very high walls. Then 28 switchbacks. Then it was an easy hike along the rim back to our car for lunch. A total of 3.3 miles in 3 hours and 11 minutes. It wasn’t as hard as we imagined, but we are pretty tired afterwards.

[inghamm]

3rd day at Bryce Canyon
Slept in a bit and then went out to Mossy Cave and a waterfall. Not as spectacular as the main part of the park, but more interesting than we had anticipated. As we were going up the trail and saw the water coming down the canyon with a pretty good flow, we wondered where the water was coming from. Turns out the early Mormon Pioneers used the “Water Canyon” as a leg of a canal - “tropic ditch” bringing water from the Tropic reservoir to the town that became the farming community of Tropic.
Then we went for a little bike ride in the town of Cannonville (where our KOA campground is located) and visited the visitor center and got some information for our day tomorrow, which includes a hike down Morris Creak, which includes a slot canyon. (or 5 of them)
After dinner we went back to Bryce Canyon for some sunset shots, but got there late enough that it was twilight, which didn’t look that different from the morning the other day.

[inghamm]

We hiked the Willis Creek trail with 5 slot canyons. Not as dramatic as Wall Street the other day, but still pretty cool. First we had to drive 6 miles on a dirt road to get to the trailhead. Willis Creek is not very much water. 1-2 inches deep, 3 feet wide on average. Sometimes we had no choice but to walk in the creek, but we had our waterproof boots and it wasn’t very deep, so our feet stayed dry. About 3 miles in and back.
Then we went out to Kodachrome State Park to eat lunch and look around a little bit. Also on some dirt roads there.

We were very happy to have the SUV with all the dirt roads. Never could have made it with a mini van or a Motorhome.

[inghamm]

don't know how to rotate those 1st 2 pictures

[Gwenne & Len]

This is all very helpful - thanks!! We are going to the Zion area in the spring, so I am cutting and pasting your info for reference!! Your photo's are beautiful!!

[Bailey'sMom]

Thanks for posting al the pics. Looks like a great trip.

Are there many people out there at this time of year?

[inghamm]

we were surprised at how many people were out, especially 10am-3pm, the popular parking spots were full.