Desert View - Day 20 - Rim Trail

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8:05 am - Thursday - November 30th - Grand Canyon - 32º F, humidity 58%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy with a forecast high of 60º F......another nice day, and another reprieve from winter. In fact, we have three consecutive days with temps still in the 60's!

So, what about Wednesday?  Our last exploration was the previous Friday when we hiked, or I should say, I hiked the first 3.2 miles of the Grandview Trail.  For this hike I let TLE chose the trail and she settled in pretty quickly on the Rim Trail which runs from Yaki Point to Hermit's Rest.....about 10 miles in all.  We decided to hike from Yaki Point along the GC to the fork in the trail which would take us down to the 'Marketplace' store where we would have a lunch and then hike back to Yaki Point.....about 6.9 miles round trip.

You cannot park in the parking lot at Yaki Point......it is reserved for shuttle and tour buses only.  You have to park out on SR-64 and walk about 1/2 mile into the trail head.  Yaki Point is also the trailhead for the Kaibab Trail which is the shortest route, at just over 7 miles, to the bottom of the GC.

Upon our arrival at Yaki we found a small herd of elk cows......this one was right off the trail by about 5 feet....she just went about her business ignoring us for the most part.....

......since we plan to hike the Kaibab Trail in the near future we decided to walk down the trail about 300 yards to get a feel for it.  This trail is also used by mule trains going to the bottom so it is much wider than Grandview by a factor of 4, or 5.  This trail is much more to TLE's liking to say the absolute least.

A lot of switchbacks to begin the trail

......the colors in the Canyon this day were a little muted due to the heavy overcast, but I thought they were breathtaking, nevertheless.

 Some info on the Kaibab Trail

.....when we do hike the Kaibab Trail we will aim for Skeleton Point, about 3 miles down the trail.  We won't go to the bottom our first time.

Then it was on to the Rim Trail.....we took an 'usie' to memorialize the start of our hike and then headed out the paved Rim Trail.....

.....as you walk west you do not realize you are gradually heading downhill the grade is so subtle, and that is probably because you are walking, most of the time, right along the edge of the GC and spending all your time enjoying the views.....

I think this is the only fencing we encountered on our walk along the Rim Trail

......we reached the Marketplace General Store just before 2 pm.  You will recall we have eaten in their Deli once before and enjoyed the pizza we ordered.  This time TLE ordered a Rueben, and I their French Dip......would I normally pay almost $9 for each of these sandwiches?  Probably not.....but at 50% off (employee discount) they are perfect, and delicious!

We were back on the trail by 2:45 pm walking uphill......according to the final report on my Strava program we had elevation gain on the way back.....about 3.45 miles in all.....of 488'!!!  We felt everyone of those 488' feet in our legs and lungs.....

....I guess it just goes to show you that there are not really any flat trails here at the GC.....even if they seem to have that appearance......beware!

We were back at the car by 3:40 and on our way back home shortly thereafter.....we stopped off at the Desert View store to pick up a few packages which had arrived at the P.O. Box over the past few days.  Amazon Prime stuff gets here pretty fast......must faster than when we were in Gardiner, MT.  We next stopped at the on site fuel station to fill up our tank at $3.18/gallon for premium gasoline.....not too bad when you only take on 9 gallons.  It's expensive, but handy.  No doubt gasoline is cheaper in Flagstaff, or Williams, but we spend 95% of our time inside the GC .  TLE put about 5 gallons in a week ago, so since we arrived 3 weeks ago we've gone through less than one tank of gas.....not bad.

Okay, it's time to get ready to drive into Flagstaff (Thursday morning now), so I'll bid you all adieu, get something to eat, get dressed and in the VW for another adventure......thanks for stopping by!

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"Peek-A-Boo!"

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7:33 am - Tuesday - October 24th - Bryce Canyon - 30º F, 83% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest.....once again.....no wind detected here at Ruby's Inn RV Park.  Forecast high for today is 63º F with another cloudless day promised!  I did not turn the water spigot off last night (forgot), but it didn't get below freezing long enough to freeze anything, and it looks like tonight will be the same......we're in the middle of a 'heatwave'!

We really don't like hiking the same trails over and over again when we are in a new place, so we try to organize our hikes with as little of that as possible.  In Yellowstone it was unavoidable in numerous cases as many of the hikes we did were 'out and back' hikes, but here in Bryce Canyon NP there are a LOT of 'loop' trails which enable one to do a large circle ending back at your starting point without covering the same ground twice.  We like that.  When we were doing the Sunrise Point/Navajo loop trail on Saturday we saw a sign at one of the junctures pointing to the 'Peek-A-Boo' loop trail.  

Peek-A-Boo Loop Trail

This trail can be accessed from Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, and Bryce Point.....since we had already done hikes from the first two we chose Bryce Point as our starting point......

.....the elevation at the Bryce Point trailhead is 8,300' above sea level........

......the trail begins with a rather sharp drop in altitude over the first mile with numerous switchbacks......

......the views are immediately captivating and we find ourselves stopping a dozen times in the first mile to take pictures.....

.....eventually the trail begins to become a little 'flatter'......

 Thor's Hammer 

.....every time we turn a corner, and there are many corners, we are greeted with one amazing view after another......

 Wall of Windows

......we finally come to the 'Peek-A-Boo' trail loop sign at the 1 mile mark....you can do the trail in either a clockwise, or counter clockwise direction.....we chose the clockwise option.  We descended another 1/2 mile where we came to a actual restroom (pit toilet) located near the horse corrals (this is a multi use trail used by bipeds and horses alike) which we utilized.....whenever you see a restroom you use it whether, or not you think you need to go....😏

From the horse corral the trail begins to ascend once again, and the descend, ascend sequence will be repeated numerous more times over the course of the 3 mile 'Peek-A-Boo' loop trail.

Over the course of the 3.5 months we spent in Yellowstone we only hiked two days in a row on a few occasions.  Monday was a our third consecutive day of hiking, and as one might imagine, every single hike (with the exception of the Rim Trail) begins with a long descent into Bryce Canyon, and ends with a long climb out of the canyon.  At any rate, by the time we had covered about 1.5 miles of the loop TLE turned to me and said....."Clarke, you have to know this trail is kicking my a$$!".....uh oh.....she never complains.......well, she was only verbalizing what I was thinking and feeling.  I reminded her that we still had a little over 2.5 miles to go, with much of that being of the uphill variety, and all we could do was continue on at a little slower pace, and take more breaks along the trail.....of course, it helps that the beauty of the terrain helped take our minds off our collective discomfort......

.....we came to another of those, as I call them, vertical slot canyons where the terrain seems to be straight up, and involves a dozen, or so quick switchbacks......here we have just finished climbing the vertical slot canyon and are greeted at top with a short tunnel taking us to a new vista.....I think this is why the trail is called 'Peek-A-Boo'......there is a new vista around every corner.....

 TLE named these the 'Red Headed Hoodoos'....the white ones in the middle of the picture are all capped in red.

I thought you might appreciate some video of what walking these well groomed trails looks like....both of these videos were done within 1/2 mile of our climb back to Bryce Point.....

Walking the trail

......we took our final break, which included a snack, at the sign indicating '1 mile' to Bryce Point.......I only mention this sign as it became obvious by this time that unlike most of the other mileage signs in Bryce Canyon, this sign is incorrect.....the distance to Bryce Point is more like 1.25 miles.  Our total hiking distance should have been 5 miles exactly based on all the signs, but our mileage total (see below) ended up being 5.5.....

Should read '1.25 ML'!

.....we reached the Bryce Point parking lot, and our Beetle around 1:45 pm......I never heard another peep out of TLE after her one dramatic declaration.  We were both very happy to have finished this hike in style!

So, the numbers......5.5 miles traversed, moving time 2 hours, 16 minutes, 11 seconds, 24 minutes and 43 seconds per mile average, 1,322' of elevation gain, and 988 caloric units incinerated....

......and with Monday we come to the end of our hiking adventures in Bryce Canyon NP!  We covered about 17.5 miles over 3 successive days with a lot of elevation gain and loss.....our legs need some time to recuperate!  There are many more trails to hike here in Bryce, but they will have to wait for another time.  We'll take Tuesday to rest a little, do some laundry, and some other cleaning as we will be spending the next 8 days (beginning Wednesday) boon docking 133 miles south of our present location where the day time temps will be in the high 60's and low 70's every single day!

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Bryce Canyon - Day 3 - Fairyland

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8:05 am -  Monday - October 23rd - Bryce Canyon - 36º F, humidity 45%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northeast......looks CALM to me.  Forecast high is 65º F!

Sunday's hike into Fairyland Canyon so far exceeded my expectations that adjectives fail me today.  After our first two days of seeing one amazing 'hoodoos' formation after another I thought Sunday's hike would just be a longer repetition of our first two days, but was I ever wrong.  According to all the literature we read about this trail our hiking distance would be somewhere in the vicinity of 8+miles, and a number of our friends recommended this hike, so we set off to the Fairyland Canyon parking lot about 10:30 am.  The parking lot for this trailhead is not inside the Bryce Canyon gate, but within a few hundred feet of hiking you are notified that you are entering the Bryce Canyon Wilderness.....

.....as we made our way down the Fairyland Trail both TLE and I began to 'oooh' and 'ahhh'....I found myself stopping every 100 feet, or so to take another picture.....

......as I was taking the above picture I saw that there was a pine tree growing in a most unlikely spot....right on top of a 'hoodoo'......

Just one example of the many 'windows' we observed in one 'hoodoo' after another

TLE entitled this 'hoodoo' formation 'The Conversation'

......there were places where you could see the Fairyland trail wending its way amongst the 'hoodoos' a mile, or so in the distance.....the trail condition was magnificent, and the views were incredible!  I came to the point where I was grateful that our hike was going to be over 8 miles.....I did not want it to end......

The Fairyland trail is visible for a mile, or more in the distance

Another pine tree growing in a most unlikely place

.....at the 4 mile mark we came to the 'Tower Bridge'......WOW....just WOW!

 Tower Bridge

 Up close and personal with 'Tower Bridge'

At last we came to the connecting 'Rim Trail', which would take us back to Fairyland Canyon Vista point.....some 2.5 miles distant.  At the time we thought this would be similar to Saturday's 'Rim Trail'.....mostly flat....but that was not to be.  We had to gain some 500' in elevation before we began our final descent to our car at the Fairyland Canyon parking lot, but the views continued to amaze......

.....around 2:20 pm we arrived back at the Fairyland Canyon parking lot where I took one last video......

.....so, once again we averaged just over 21 minute miles for the entire hike gaining 1,735' of elevation over the course of the hike with a total moving time just under 3 hours....that elevation gain was way more than I expected!  The distance came in at exactly 8.2 miles......nice when the mileage markers are accurate, right?  So far all the mileage markers have been quite accurate in contrast to what we experienced in Yellowstone.

We were back at the Newell a little before 3 pm with big smiles on our faces.  Sunday's hike was definitely not a repeat of what we had already seen.  Monday we will embark upon another ambitious hike.....stay tuned!

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