September 23: Swamp Canyon   Miles Today : ~12

On the way here, the road passes through Red Canyon, a startling place with deep red colored rocks and natural bridges – that you DRIVE through! It was a short but impressive area that we stopped in several times to appreciate. We got into Bryce Canyon shortly thereafter, only to discover that the park is being torn to pieces. The one and only road is in shambles and getting the one-mile to the visitor center took 15 minutes. After checking and receiving our permits, however, things started to look up. First, we stopped at an outlook called Sunset Point. Sunset Point, blew her (and me) away. She mentioned that this place ALONE was worth the trip.

It was getting on in the day, however, so we hopped back in the car and headed as far south as the road would take us, right to Rainbow Point. This is our destination for tomorrow so that meant that we had to pack our bags and solicit a ride from one of the many tourists enjoying the view.

And my fantastic luck with hitchhiking continued! On the second car to pass our way, a wonderful retired couple offered us space in their Suburban. Gene and Martha, who will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this summer, were nice enough to give us a ride not only the 15 miles back along the road, but also a bit out of their way to Bryce Point, which is where the Under-The-Rim Trail begins. Along the way they shared stories of all the places that they have visited with their Airstream Club. The laundry list of place made me jealous, but I was a bit sad to hear that they never had the opportunity to see the Old Man of the Mountain. Happy trails, Gene and Martha, thanks for the lift!

Bryce Point is just another amazingly beautiful spot in the park, and the perfect place for Diane and I to begin our adventure. Almost immediately, the trail descended into the canyon, swinging in and out of canyon walls. We were not just getting great views, we were up close and personal with Bryce. One of the coolest parts of the trail today was The Hat Shop. This area of the trail has a series of red-sand cone-shaped objects with a gray colored rock topping off the formation. The result is a whole bunch of these sand formations looking like they are wearing hats. Very cool and quite unique.

After the Hat Shop, the trail descended further into the canyon and we found ourselves surrounded by lush vegetation and running water. The trail didn’t stay in the trees for long, however, and it rose up a bit to treat us to spectacular views of the pink and orange canyon walls. This pattern would continue for the rest of the day. One particular image made an impression on me. With only a few miles to go, I reached the top of a short climb with a view of this Devil’s Tower-esque massive staring me in the face. It was a tower of orange and pink and it appeared to rise out of nothing.

But the coolest thing on the trail was just a few minutes before our campsite. Swamp Canyon is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. Not only are the views spectacular from the edge of the canyon, but the canyon itself is amazing. It is almost a complete circle of stone walls colored in pink, purple, gray, green and orange. You can stand on the precipice and gaze down, down, down into the canyon, and up, up, up to the other views in Bryce. Yelling into Swamp Canyon produced an unparalleled echo that seemingly cam from six different locations. If the spot that I was standing on was a bit bigger, I would have put the tent up there and called it a night.

Now,I am comfortable, bedded down in my Sierra Designs tent, safe from the killer mosquitoes that are currently infesting this area. We are rationing water tonight since there is none to be found here, but otherwise life is good. Bryce Canyon, so far, has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for us tomorrow.

-Chomp

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