Bryce Canyon

Dean and I decided we wanted to see a couple national parks this summer and thought bryce canyon was close enough and that we could do it in a day.  We got up early on a Saturday and Aunt Stephanie decided to come with us.  She hadn't see Bryce Canyon before either.  It's about 2 1/2 hours away so we left around 7:00.  While we were getting closer they had a bike race going through an outside town from Bryce.  Dean got pulled over while the race was going.  The cop was really nice and asked us if we were with the race crew and trying to catch up to the riders.  We told him we were headed to Bryce and he gave us a warning and told us to enjoy our time in Bryce.  Dean always gets lucky and never gets a ticket.  When we reached Bryce we knew we wanted to do about 3 or 4 hikes and see a few stops along a stretch of road we had heard are worth seeing. We started at Sunrise point and then started our first hike in the Navajo loop and queens garden trail.  It's about a 3 mile hike and the boys did great.  It was pretty busy for the weekend but we still enjoyed hiking and enjoying the scenery.  It was gorgeous and so many cool formations and things to see.  We went down in a slot canyon and found a tree that had grown up through the slot canyon.  It was so tall and pictures couldn't do it justices.  We were in shade from the slot canyon for a little bit so it felt good to be out of the hot sun.  After that hike we walked the Rim Trail from inspiration point to Bryce point which was a pretty hike just hiking the rim leading down into the canyon.  That trail was pretty much empty. We maybe passed 2 couples or groups along the way.  Once we got to Bryce point we headed to get on a shuttle to take us back down to our car we had parked at sunrise point.  The shuttle only took about 10 minutes and then we got in our car to look at some stopping points along southern scenic drive. We stopped at rainbow point, which was actually nothing to special but we got out of our car and walked around to see.  We then went on the Natural Bridge viewpoint along the scenic drive.  We got some pictures by the arche and then decided we didn't need to see anymore stopping points as we had heard those two were the best.  We then stopped and ate a late lunch in our car while we got ready for our last hike of the day that would lead us to a waterfall.  Our last hike was to Mossy cave trail and waterfall.  It had been a very mild winter with not a lot of rain and snow.  It had also started out as a hot summer so we were suer how much of a waterfall we would be seeing.  The river hiking to the wtear fall was really pretty and the color was so blue considering the dirt all around it.  The hike was about 1.5 miles round trip.  Once we reached the waterfall Dean, Brecken and Landon all hike up into it and got a little wet being behind it.  It felt good with how hot of a day it was.  After the hike we had decided we had seen all that we wanted to so we headed home around 3:30.  It was a beautiful stretch of land and I'm glad we got to spend some time with the boys seeing some of this beautiful national park.