Bryce Canyon Day 2: Under the Rim Trail - Ponderosa Canyon to Rainbow Point

The Under the Rim trail in Bryce Canyon National Park is considered the park's premier backpacking route.  Many of the sources I had consulted for planning purposes said that our trip would not be complete without backpacking the 22.9 miles from the park's Southern end at Rainbow Point up to Bryce Point. 

 Shortly after arriving at Bryce we stopped into the visitor center to ask some preliminary questions about this backpacking route we were planning on tackling later in the week.  Ranger Geoff filled us in on some important details.  Several of the backcountry campsites near Bryce Point had been closed due to troubles with black bears in the area.  The result being that an 11 mile day was needed to finish the trail from the last available campsite up to Bryce Point.  He also let us know that a section of the trail had been wiped out by rockslides, and that finding the route could prove tricky in this area.  Water was only sporadically available on the trail, as well.  

I asked him if I should plan to get in line early to get a permit the day before our hike, as I did in Zion, and he replied "oh, no, you shouldn't have any trouble getting a permit.  Zion is a WAY better backcountry park than Bryce."  Geoff went on to tell us about a story written in Backpacker Magazine a few years ago that hailed Bryce Canyon's Under the Rim Trail as one of the best backpacking trips in America.  The park was suddenly filled with eager adventure seeking backpackers.  Geoff said that many would return to the visitor center angry with their experience afterwards.  It would seem that the Under the Rim Trail is not something we cannot live without doing.  We decided to shoot for the Riggs Spring Loop for our backpacking trip later this week instead.  The Riggs Spring Loop also leaves from Rainbow Point, but stays in the forested southern section of the park, avoiding the rock slides, and the bears.

This decision made, I wanted to see as much of the Under the Rim Trail as possible, rock-slide section aside, of course.  It turned out it would be possible to day-hike a number of sections by using the park's Rainbow Point Tour Bus, free to visitors by reservation.  We ended up arranging for a shuttle from Rainbow Point, at the Southern end of the park back to Ponderosa Canyon.  This would allow us to hike one way along the trail and end up back at our Jeep at the end of the day.  All told, this would leave us with a manageable 8 mile day.

We met the Rainbow Point Tour Bus in the parking lot at Bryce Point a little after ten in the morning.  The rest of the tourists on board were making the full round-trip guided tour of the park.  We looked a little out of place, with our hiking poles and day-packs.  The bus driver, who doubled as tour guide, included us on the tour for the rest of the passengers  "and these people, folks, are actually going to go hiking in the park today.  Make sure you watch out for those bears."  He seemed to think that Bryce's black bear population was bloodthirsty and on the loose.  We were amused by this, as we've hiked in quite a few places known for difficult ursine populations, and Bryce was not thought to be one of them!

The bus ride only took a few minutes, and then we were headed off down the Agua Canyon Connector Trail by ourselves.  "By ourselves" was a key trait of this hike.  In five hours and eight miles of hiking we saw exactly one other person.  A little before Iron Spring a man passed us jogging in the opposite direction.  I thought that one heck of a morning run!  

The solitude was charming, especially in contrast with how crowded the rest of the park had been.  The connector trail followed a high ridge with striking views to the East.  A seemingly endless collection of Hoodoos adorned the near cliffs.  Close to a mile into the hike, the connector trail began a rapid, but manageable switchback down to meet the Under the Rim Trail.  

Once on the main trail, we strolled through a lush forest of pine for hours.  The trail descended to meet the North Fork, where only a trickle of water ran.  

Shortly after this, an impressive rock formation appeared on the left side of the trail.  A collection of white rocks were clustered together on the hillside.  The structure was alone, near the top of the hill.  I thought it bore a resemblance to "weathertop" in the Fellowship of the Ring Movie.  

I couldn't resist the temptation to explore this peculiar fortress of rocks.  It was possible to walk through it in several places, and by walking around the back of it and climbing some sculpted rock, I was able to reach an overlook.  Mary took my picture here.  It felt like I was in the turret of a castle.  What a strange and unusual landscape!

We resumed our descent through the evergreen forest.  Other than the one lone jogger, we had the forest to ourselves for the day.  We stopped for lunch at the Iron Spring Campsite.  The air had warmed in the heat of the day, but a pleasant breeze blew through the canyons.

After lunch, the trail began climbing, gradually at first, and then more steeply later.  It crossed several "washes," or dried up stream beds.  Some of the washes looked almost as if a construction crew had ran a bulldozer down through the forest below the ridge. This was striking evidence of the power water during a flash flood could have on this terrain.  Thankfully, for us, there was no chance of rain in the foreseeable future. 

Crossing some of the washes required scrambling up the rocky riverbanks, and in places the trail took a moment to locate on the other side of the stream course.  As we hiked north, we also encountered more and more downed trees.  Climbing over and under these obstacles was taxing.

The last two miles of the hike were, by far, the most spectacular.  The trail climbed steadily above the various branches of the Black Birch Canyon.  As we hiked, the views to the East began to open up.  It seemed as if we could see hundreds of miles.  Mesas and ridges ran endlessly towards the horizon, and distant, larger mountains hung in the sky liked shadowy ghosts.  Many people have said that hiking in canyon country makes one feel small.  This section of the trail certainly had the feeling of being lost in a vast landscape too grand to comprehend.  

As the trail worked its way around Ponderosa Ridge it slowly turned back to the West.  We suddenly could see the observation platform built on Rainbow Point.  This provided the illusion of making us think we were close to the end of the hike, but the trail still had a few tricks up its sleeve.  As it turned North, the Under the Rim Trail skirted a ridge with stunning views to the West.  It climbed higher and higher, breaking out into a treeless world of red rock.  We had views in 360 degrees, with distant mesas and ridges to the East, a labyrinth of Hoodoos directly to the West and North, and the green ridge of Rainbow Point to the South.  If we looked more carefully to the Southwest, we could make out patches of snowfields on distant mountains.

We stopped for a few photos while crossing the exposed red rock.  The winds howled across the open terrain with enough force that we found ourselves crouching down while taking pictures.

On the other side, the trail climbed rapidly up the green ridge, ascending past the 9,100 feet mark.  The winds died down to more normal breezes in the forest.  We began to pass folks wandering down from Rainbow Point with cameras and flip flops - a sure sign that we were near the end.

This stretch of the Under the Rim Trail far exceeded my expectations.  We had solitude, dark forest, and stunning views for hours while exploring the more remote corners of Bryce Canyon National Park.  Tomorrow we are thinking we will visit one of the more heavily trafficked trails in the north part of the park in order to take in some more of the hoodoo formations up close.  After exploring the South end of Bryce today, though, we are more excited to go backpacking in this quiet, green area later in the week.  

Bryce Canyon National Park Day 1

We took full advantage of our first night with air conditioning and a bed in a week, sleeping in to the late, late hour of 9 AM. We had gotten used to waking with the sun, or even before it to escape the desert heat.  The BumbleBerry Inn in Springdale had a beautiful outside pool and hot tub with pleasing views of the sandstone cliffs to both the East and the West.  We lounged in the pool for a while, trying to soak up the comforts before heading back out on the road.

Once checking out of the motel, we used the first half of the day to run errands.  We had a hearty breakfast at a local joint, mailed post cards to family, purchased a few groceries for the next week, and re-stocked the cooler with ice.  Springdale, Utah is a very nice town, and very eager to cater to tourists.  The local businesses, by and large, sell just about anything one could desire, and the employees are exceedingly friendly.  

The only drawback to this little town on the doorstep of Zion was that everything was pricey.  I had never paid $16 for a single container of sunscreen before, for example!  I guess the saying is true about a captive audience.  

The road out of Zion was anything but routine.  It climbed past Canyon Junction, affording one last glimpse of Zion Canyon from a lofty perch.  Eventually the road reached a 1 mile tunnel, carved into the heart of the canyon wall.  Built by the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps during Roosevelt's New Deal, the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel is an engineering marvel.  The crews built windows into the side of it, periodically, which provide the occasional glimpse of how the terrain is changing as the road travels East.  

Once emerging from the tunnel, we were treated to a strange terrain of sculpted slick-rock.  The road wound its way higher and higher up the Plateau as it went.  We stopped at a few scenic turn-outs for photos, and marveled at the cooler air.  By the time we were making the turn south for Bryce Canyon National Park, the air was a full 25 degrees cooler than on the floor of Zion Canyon.  

The road to Bryce traversed open country.  Ranch land bordered closely in most places, framed by the more distant mesas, and the even more distant mountains to the North.  We were lucky enough to drive by a field while men on horseback were herding cattle - actual cowboys!  All of this added to the "out west" motif to the area.

Entering Bryce Canyon National Park was quite different from most other parks.  Bryce is famous for the strange rock  formations called hoodoos.  Anyone who has watched a National Geographic or Travel Channel special on the American West has seen pictures of these famous and peculiar landmarks.  Driving into the park, though, provided no evidence of them.  The park road, which travels south from the entrance all the way to Rainbow Point where it dead-ends, is lined with grassy fields and gentle stands of pine trees.  No views could be seen in either direction as we drove into the park, found a campground and set up camp for the week.  

We were elated, however, with the cooler weather.  The air was little over 80 degrees, with cloudless blue skies overhead.  I was hoping we would find our tent and sleeping bag more welcoming here than we did in Zion, where we usually just sprawled naked on top of the air mattress and tried to think cool thoughts long enough to fall asleep.

With camp set up, it was time to drive around and try to gain an understanding of the landscape.  We drove to several points along the park road with views to the East.  This strange land was unlike anything I had ever seen.  The hoodoos began directly beneath the canyon rim, stretching for a couple of miles to the East in most places.  No two were the same.  They ranged from slender spires of limestone, to rock faces with windows cut out of them, to balanced rocks where the middle of the hoodoo was eroded away so severely as to create the illusion that someone had placed a boulder on top of the spire.  In many places the hoodoos were grouped together so as to resemble a structure, such as a sand castle.  

The whole scene was too strange to be real.  I couldn't resist feeling like it was some type  of optical illusion.  We drove the park road all the way to Rainbow Point.  At over 9,000 feet of elevation, this point allowed stunning views of both the hoodoo formations, and of the distant  mesas and mountains of the Grand Escalante National Staircase, stretching to the horizon in the East.  

On our drive back to camp the road was lined with, and even occasionally blocked  by, pronghorn deer.  The park is also home to elk, black bears, mountain lions and prairie dogs, to name a few species, but we have yet to see any of these.  

After cooking up some delicious stir-fry for dinner in camp, we headed to the Bryce Lodge for the evening program.  Ranger Geoff gave a surprisingly interesting presentation on the geology of the park.  I say surprising, because I have seldom found geology to be of interest.  I think its the large spans of time involved. I can understand how it took 50 million years for something to form, but it just isn't interesting to me, seeing as no one could sit around and watch it happen.  To his credit, Ranger Geoff's presentation was highly engaging and left me with a much better understanding of the processes that sculpted this bizarre landscape.  The ranger said that he taught astronomy the rest of the year, when he wasn't working at the national park.  His students are lucky to have a teacher who is so engaging and full of wonder at the natural world.

In the morning we made some breakfast and packed the day-packs for our first day hike in the park.  I was eager to explore this new terrain.  We selected the Peekaboo Loop Hike for our first ramble. A 5.5 mile hike of moderate difficulty, the Peekaboo Loop takes hikers from high on the ridge at Bryce Point down into the heart of the Hoodoos, and back out again.  We quickly learned that one downside to starting on the rim of a canyon is that you have to hike back up at the end of the day.

The trail left Bryce Point via a long and steady switch back down a moderately steep rock wall.  Pinyon, Juniper, Ponderosa and Limber Pines grew sporadically along the trail as it worked its way towards the lower elevations.  Clark's Nutcrackers, a western relative of Blue Jays, darted among the trees as we hiked.  

About half way through the descent, the trail passed through a short tunnel in the red rock.  This would be the first of several tunnels on the Peekaboo Loop Trail.

Upon reaching the bottom the actual loop portion of the hike began.  We chose to turn left and make the hike in a clockwise direction, but I think it could done either way with little difference.  The trail worked its way through the maze of hoodoos.  We would climb steeply up a wall via tightly woven switchbacks to reach a pass or tunnel and then drop back down the other side, only to repeat the process again.

The trail surface was loose rock with a coating of sand.  It was unpredictably slick, and required slow and careful food placement.  We found the 5.5 miles to be very slow going, and tiring.  

Hiking through the Hoodoos themselves was fascinating.  I felt as if I was walking through a life-size series of sand castles, or perhaps through a strange, beach themed miniature golf course.  None of it seemed real.  Occasional windows in the rock faces would provide unique photo opportunities of the more distant landscapes.  

Once completing the loop portion of the hike, we made the tiring climb back up to Bryce Point.  The weather was pleasant and mild throughout our hike, with blue skies framed by red rock formations.  

This is a bizarre place, and unlike anything I have seen before.  We are planning several more day hikes in the park, and a backpacking trip.  Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a better grasp on this unusual landscape!