BYWAY NOT TO BE MISSED & POINTS to SEE...

This post will be two days scrunched into a single entry. Even after 3 days of touring Bryce Canyon National Park and the surrounding area I still can not find adequate adjectives to describe all the beauty we have seen….majestic …says it all and says little.  (NOTE: Viewing through Mozilla Firefox is less than perfect. If you can't see the current slideshows try another browser.)

 Monday, 23 Oct 2011

Monday morning found us pulling into Fairyland Point to view Fairyland Canyon.  Surprised to discover that at 10:30am we had the viewpoint entirely to ourselves, bonus!   I'm posting a short video that I took there and have, as usual, other photos streaming via the slideshow  next to the post. (I'll upload the photos from each day into separate shows.)

Off to Tropic and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument we go.

There is one just like this going WEST

After leaving the park we headed east to explore our intended goal of seeing what Kodachrome Basin State Park (and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in which it resides) has to offer in the way of camping facilities, only to discover that there was so much more to this part of UTAH. Finding a visitor center in the town of Cannonville, we were given a "Route Guide to Scenic Byway 12" booklet which outlined what we could see going East, once we saw the park we headed back to Byway 12.

Byway 12 covers 124 miles and we were starting at milepost 25 and would end at milepost 85, and saw 80% of the 'Points of Interest' that the booklet described, not bad for a long day of driving. That booklet includes the mileposts and what can be found at each one - it was extremely interesting and helpful to have handy...put us on alert for the next attraction.   (Additional photos are in the slideshow on my blog.)

Tuesday, 24 Oct 2011

Our last day in the park and we found ourselves scrambling to get the balance of the viewpoints, all 11 of them,  checked off before the forecasted weather change occurred.  The park has only one entrance and the 'end of the road/last viewpoint' is 18 miles south.  The last viewing points are Rainbow & Yovimpa - this shows the easy Bristlecone Loop (1mi) from Rainbow Point.

 Again we found ourselves in virtually empty parking lots, which for us is always a cause for joy, therefore, able to enjoy the vistas in relative  quiet. They do not encourage lingering  - few of the view points have "facilities" or picnic tables.

approaching Rainbow Point

Not to worry, there are places along the road to enjoy the scenery and eat a lunch. However, there are a handful of view points that have little if any railing along the rim... (nice!) and very large signs telling parents to watch their children.

Not to worry, it's more for the park lawyers than for the tourists. I saw several parents with children in tow march right pass this without batting an eye. They must have seen the sign another time.

Bryce - I am in awe of your beauty, clean trails and facilities and the ease with which you made this visit one we will remember for a very long time. Thank you.

Now onto Zion tomorrow and maybe some warmer weather, after all it is at a lower elevation. The air has been thin these last few days.

~Ciao