Tale of Two Canyons

Bryce Canyon National Park, AKA the place of the killer hike. This national park has a large canyon full of hoodoos, rock structures left as erosion wears away the sandstone around them.



The canyon is definitely interesting. We had planned a nice 2 mile trail down into the canyon, but it was closed. So, we headed to a different trail into the canyon. We figured we would just walk until we felt like turning around. It was a pretty steep descent into the canyon, but then it leveled off nicely at the bottom. It was great to do a hike into the canyon here because it was completely different at the bottom of the canyon. From the top it looks like just sandstone rock, but the bottom of the canyon had a lot of trees and bushes. It was nice at the bottom, and the path had some cool tunnels out of the sandstone. So nice, in fact, we kept walking.

My kids climbing on structures - big surprise!

 At some point, Dave decided we should push on to another trail and head up out of the canyon via a different route. This allowed us to not have to retrace all of our steps. Unfortunately, it meant going further than just turning around. But, we pushed on.



 The bad thing about going forward is we have no idea what to expect. Well, we ended up having to cross over a hill, so it required going up a relatively steep incline and then back down only to have to climb out of the canyon at the end. It was long and tedious. Fortunately, Dave had bought Skittles for emergencies. We had used these years ago to get Rachel and Alex through a hike. “Two skittles when we make it to that rock.” We used them to help us up the last climb. They got one Skittle for every switchback. What a difference some candy incentive makes. They focused on that instead of how tired they were and made it relatively easily. We had some scary points that required hiking over snow or rock slides along a narrow path hugging the canyon wall.



All in all, we went 4.5 miles. And, in the end, I could not keep up with Matthew who was trying to beat everyone to the top. That kid is a hiker. He has a kick at the end, especially when motivated to “win”. But, since we came up at a different point than we started, Dave had to go get the car. It ended up being 2.7 miles back to the car – a little farther (and apparently more hilly) than expected. Fortunately, I got to stay and play Jeopardy for the remaining Skittles with the kids.


Scared?


Our hope had been to stay in the area and go to Zion National Park as well. These two parks are apparently very different and both cool. But, we had reservations in Vegas in a few days that we needed to work around. The north rim of the Grand Canyon was closed for another 10 days, so we were forced to drive to the south rim to view it. This was an extra 10 hours of driving from Bryce Canyon to Vegas versus seeing the Grand Canyon from the north rim. Pretty bummed, especially as we drove right past the closed road that would have led us to the north rim. I had no idea where we were staying and very spotty cell service to figure it out. It got late and we just kept driving. Eventually, I had enough service to find us a hotel outside Grand Canyon National park, but we had a long drive to get there. We were on roads that had no other cars for miles and miles. It’s a little scary to do be doing that late at night, but we had nowhere else to stay. We had to make it to our destination. At some point, we entered the park and were driving along the Grand Canyon. It was pitch black, so we had no idea that we were so close to it, though. We did see LOTS of elk. I couldn’t believe how many we saw. Scary because they are so big and we were so alone out there. We had one sitting right beside the car just checking us out as we passed. I wished that I had had my camera in the front seat with me. They were amazing.

The next day we took a look at the Grand Canyon. I have to say that I was underwhelmed. I've been playing with my camera along the trip to get better pictures, but I could not get a great picture of the canyon.  This is what it looked like - dull color.As Zack said, “it looks the same as it does in pictures.” I think part of the problem is coming from Utah, the canyon is not as beautiful.

 
 They had a nice geological walk that had counters on the sidewalk to help you appreciate how long those rocks have been here. I thought that was actually pretty well done, and the kids liked running to count the numbers. We decided to take a short .75 mile hike down into the canyon. Just as in Utah, the kids scared me beyond belief. I couldn’t even walk with Zack because he was being crazy. And, there were so many places that one bad step off the edge meant certain death.



I was struck by the depth of the canyon. I think that I appreciated it a lot more as we hiked. We hiked close to 1000 feet down, and yet it felt like the canyon had not gotten any smaller.  Here we are at our stop off, taking pictures at a very scary place where Zack kept trying to climb on the rocks hanging over the edge.



Dave wanted to take a picture of me, but that meant both of us were preoccupied for a moment and not focused completely on managing the boys.  Here's me freaking out at Zack, who won't just sit still for 1 minute for me to get a picture taken. 


 Hiking back up was long and painful. Rachel was struggling and had to rest frequently. Still have to make it all the way up there to the top!



 I am glad to have seen the Grand Canyon and checked it off my list, but I don’t have any great desires to return. So many of these other parks offer more interesting and diverse experiences.

Dave scaring me along the way, taking kids to the edges of the canyon.  He is definitely the "cool" parent and I am the "lame" one that never lets the kids do anything fun.

A rare picture of me and Dave