Bryce Canyon

Sunday: Red Canyon

Today we leisurely got up.

On our way into Bryce Canyon, there is Red Canyon. The “mounds” are awesome, and have a deep red/orange, sandstone. This canyon is small in comparison to Bryce, but still beautiful. We stopped at a roadside stop, just to walk around. There are cicadas in the trees, and on the flowers. If you are just standing there, you can hear “click, click, click”. It is strange, and they are everywhere. You don’t see them all, just a few, but you hear them all around!

It’s fascinating how there are huge creek beds that are completely dry, and it doesn’t seem like they have been dry for long, as the sides of the bed aren’t eroded, like you would think, if it had been a while. This canyon leads into Bryce Canyon, which is makes me awe struck. As you drive in, you see hoodoo’s here and there, and they are so cool. Then when you go on a hike, you see even more beauty.

The first trail we took was Mossy Cave, and was 0.4 miles, one way. It doesn’t seem like much, but those 0.4 miles are up steep, slippery walls, and it was hot! One part of this trail was to a waterfall, and the other, to a mossy cave. The waterfall was neat. Once there, Amaya and Ryan just played around it. Scott, Jake, and I ventured up a steep, slippery, incline, to get to a hoodoo, having a hole through it (or window). It was great, but slippery. After this, we all trekked back on the trail up to Mossy Cave, which wasn’t much of a cave. It was more like a hallowed out area with a fence in front of it, so we couldn’t enter. Back down the trail we went. Ryan played in the river again, which was a perfect temperature, but had too many rocks in it, so he was disappointed.

The Mossy Cave

Where we hiked

Playing at the river

the view from where we climbed

looking up to where we hiked

After lunch we went to Sunrise Trail.  Once we got to the Sunrise to Sunset trail, we were able to see the “Amphitheater”, which absolutely amazes me. It is mind boggling how this is just here, just around a corner, and is God made! Wow! There are trails going off the Sunset trail, and a zigzag trail to get down to one of the canyons. Scott and Ryan took the zigzag one. It was 0.5 miles down, then 0.5 miles back up. It was crazy steep. While they did that, I went down on the opposite side. I didn’t go too far, but was able to get a little bit more into the canyon, to get better pictures. Amaya and Jake stayed at the top. After we could see Scott and Ryan coming back up, Jake met them a little ways down, and then walked back up with them. After we were all back at the top, the wind started to pick up, and it started to rain a bit. At this point we were on our way back to our car and off to find a hotel for the night. We stayed in Kanab this night.