Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Utah to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. On Saturday, we arrived in Bryce Canyon and set up our tent in the campgrounds. After that we head out to the canyon rim at sunset viewpoint.
I don' think I was prepared for Bryce Canyon. I didn't expect it to be sooo... fantastic!! I have seen many great sights in this world but Bryce canyon truly took my breath away. It's like fairlyland: the colors- red, orange ,yellow are so bold and brilliant. The hoodoos- these formations are so bizarre and quirky, sculpted by gnomes, surely!
Looking into Bryce amphitheatre from the top for the first time is amazing, but OMG, wait till you start hiking down amongst these crazy hoodoos it s just unbelievable that this can really exist in nature! Bryce Canyon should be on everyone's "MUST DO BEFORE I DIE" list.
On our first day, the thunderstorms were approaching from the distance. And we got to watch the lightning storm out in the distance in the canyon- can it be anymore magical?
That night the storms arrived. We woke up to find Bryce Canyon engulfed in heavy fog.
We decided to leave Bryce that morning to visit the neighbouring baby sister Red Canyon which we saw on the drive in. We took a very pretty hike called the Arches. which took us along an exciting trail to see a multitude of funky arch formations. At the time I had stated that this was the most interesting hike of my life- but I hadn't hiked in Bryce Canyon yet, had I?
In the afternoon, the rains stopped and the fog started to lift. we decided to take that intimidating hike into Bryce Canyon. We chose to hike down the Queens Garden trail and then up the Wall street portion of the Navajo Loop. Within the first 10mins of the hike, I was just in awe! The view from the top of the canyon into Bryce amphitheater is fabulous, but the views up close and personal when you penetrate the canyon is just unworldly!
Coming up out of the canyon through Wall Street, I got to experience my first slot canyon. In retrospect the views would probably have been better going up the other side of the Navajo loop, but I was just so obsessed with seeing the slot canyon. Who knew that I was going to see more of them and more interesting ones in Zion.
Nevertheless, this hike is Bryce is now the BEST hike I have EVER taken.
LAbor Day morning, we finally get to take our mule ride down into Bryce canyon. The tour takes us on the Peek-a0boo trail, yet another fantastic trail with fantastic views and formations.
These mules are funny, they like to walk right at the edge of the trail, inches from the drop off. Scary! Don't look down. My mule, Little Johnny, was such a bully- he'd kick the mule behind him and bite the one in front ,every chance he got.
On our traverse of the canyon floor, one of the mules behind us got stung by a wasp and spooked and started freaking our and kicking. Got several of the mules spooked including mine and Mike's. My heart was just pounding away when this happened. I know how dangerous a pack of spooking equines can be. Luckily everyone stayed on and good thing we weren't up on a cliff.
We arrived in Zion National Park on Labor Day afternoon. Compared with Bryce, Zion is like the serious sombre granddaddy. It has towering ( and I mean TOWERING!) sheer cliff faces of orange and yellows. It is so hot. The thought of hiking here seems really intimidating- how can it be possible to scale any of these rocks, how is possible to penetrate into them?
We settle for hiking in the Zion Narrows- first a half hour walk along the Virgin river on a paved path, and then we wade into the river and continue upriver into the Narrows canyon. The hiking is difficult as the river bed is rocky and treacherous. I fell once and bruised myself. Mike's make shift umbrella walking stick broke and I had to give him one of my hiking poles. The sheer canyon walls are colorful and beautiful but was never quite make to Orderville Canyon where past it the reputation is that the canyon truly gets 'narrow'. We penetrate another hour before turning back- it was getting late.
That night we stayed in the very adorable touristy town of Springdale in the Desert Pearl Inn. Gorgeous desert resort with huge rooms. We sat in poolside hot-tub that evening and admired the view of Zion as the sunlight petered away.
We had dinner that evening a the Spotted Dog cafe- best meal in Utah. The dishes were complex and flavourful. In Bryce the meals were disappointing. We ate 3 times in the Bryce Lodge restaurant- food there reminded me of a school cafeteria and 3 times the price.
In the Zion vicinity we went canyoneering with Jeremy from the Zion Rock & MOuntain Guides. It was a fantastic experience and definitely unique for us. We explored the Yankee Doodle canyon and did not see anyone else at all on our adventure. We did 2 abseils, the first was about 40ft from the plateau into the canyon. The second abseil was 100ft and absolutely fantastic!
After that, we did a few rock scrambles, downclimbs on rope, mini rappels, sloshing through mud and squeezing through narrow slots in the canyon. We met a pair of canyon toads ( so cute) and swarms of ravenous blood sucking mosquitoes (arrrgh- why is my mosquito repellent sitting in the car?).
The scenery was gorgeous and exciting as we never knew what was around the next turn. When we got to the bottom of our journey, Jeremy surprised us with saying we now have to climb over a rock. Turned our that 'rock' was wall at 60 degree angle. So thank goodness I had some experience with the artificial rock climbing walls. So it wasn't a vertical rock face, but still, it was a first for me- this rock climbing business and it was very exciting.
We returned to Las Vegas that aftenoon. At night we had dinner at my favorite L'atelier du Robuchon. It was restaurant week in Vegas and they were offering a 4 course meal for $50. Everything was delicious. Even the boring sounding vegetable napoleon appetizer was delicious. The scottish salmon was perfect with it ketchupy tasting tomato sauce ( best 'ketchup' ever). There serve a french brie from Normandy that was the most amazing brie I'd ever had- it was tangy and complex. Who ever knew of brie being complex? And of course, my favorite- souffle for desert. Wine pairing was lovely too- the Trimbach Pinot grigio was a winner!
