"Wind it down!"

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7:11 am - Wednesday - October 25th - Bryce Canyon - 25º F, humidity 65%, wind 7 mph out of the west......forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 65º F on this getaway day....yup, time to move further south!

After three days of hiking in and out of the amazing Bryce Canyon our legs were telling us it was time for an off day, and time to "wind it down" as my friend Roscoe would often say this summer.  There was a part of me that wanted to hike one more day, but that part did not include my tired legs.  Instead I spent time cleaning the trailer....I hadn't vacuumed it for about a month, and the folded up artificial turf needed to be turned around to make it easier to insert the VW.  On top of that I discovered my Cannondale Bad Boy had another rear flat tire.....why, why, why is it always the rear tire?  So, after TLE and I pulled the turf out of the trailer I set up the bike stand to fix the flat.  Fortunately I had bought a few new tubes while we were still in South Lake Tahoe.  At any rate, I fixed the flat, put away the bike stand once again, and then TLE and I turned the turf around, and pulled it back into the now clean trailer.

Once that was done we decided to make a quick run over to see Mossy Cave.  It was only about 5 miles away, and we were in the parking 10 minutes later.  According to the sign at the beginning of the trail it is .4 miles to Mossy Cave, and it was pretty close.....our round trip total distance was .9 miles according to my Strava program........just enough to loosen up our legs a tad.......

The sedimentary layer next to the water is sooo pink I had to take a picture

.......it took us about 12 minutes to reach the cave.....I've no doubt this cave is more fascinating in the spring time, but on this day in late October it was a little disappointing.....not much moss, and very little water dripping from the ceiling....

......we took our obligatory pictures and then walked back to see the the waterfall that was mentioned on the sign at the fork in the trail.....

.....the main waterfall was almost dry, which, again is not surprising as it is so late in the year.....I'm sure it is more impressive during the spring and early summer months......

You can just barely see the trickle of water going over the waterfall

.......Mossy Cave is considered to be part of Bryce Canyon National Park, and so it is also not surprising that more 'hoodoos' can be found at this location........

....we were back home by 1 pm, at which time I decided to wash the VW.....it has been at least 6 weeks since I have done that, and she was looking pretty sad.  I filled one of our Rubbermaid wash tubs with water and with the help of a large sponge and a couple of micro fiber towels got her looking her best again.....I finished the job by vacuuming out the interior, then it was time to put away our Sea-B-Que, and top off the fresh water supply in preparation for 8 days of living off the grid!  Time to light the fires and move south!

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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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