Megan’s Take
We started our day early at Bryce Canyon National Park, because I really wanted to do the Queen’s Garden/Navajo Loop without any threat of afternoon thunderstorms. I knew it would take our kids a while to complete, and I didn’t want any weather/time pressure. The loop descends into the Bryce Canyon amphitheater where you can walk amongst the hoodoos. It’s 3 miles long and involves about 700 feet of elevation change. As with almost everything else we’ve seen, the views were beautiful, and I really appreciated being able to get up close to the formations.
It’s a much more personal, intimate experience of the park than stopping at the overlooks. Overall, the hike took about 2.5 hours, and our kids did such a good job with it. Emilia hiked the entire loop, and Emmett probably hiked about 2 miles before we put him in a carrier. I have to keep them going with snacks and games (guess the…?). We also talked about how if they wanted to stop, we would have to leave them on the canyon floor with snacks and water to camp overnight with the chipmunks. Emilia thought that was hilarious and wanted to talk through that scenario which was a good distraction.
The other big adventure for today was rock hunting up at Agate Hill near Panguitch UT. Thunderstorms loomed closer and closer, and I did not want us outside with the threat of lightning. It rained lightly for a short while, during which Emmett was napping, so we just took a break in the truck for quiet time. But then thankfully, the clouds broke, and we had blue skies and sunshine! We drove down Castor Canyon Rd and stopped randomly, discovering that the agates covered the road and hillsides next to the road – basically everywhere in that area.
Agates are a type of stone commonly used in jewelry and decoration, as they’re known for their beauty and variety. I’m excited to throw them in my rock tumbler and see what comes out. In any case we had fun searching the roadside. The kids looked for their own rocks for a bit, but then we pulled camp chairs and snacks out of the truck. They were very happy with that setup. Phil lovingly searched for exceptionally pretty agates to help fill my bucket.
I suspect he somewhat enjoys rock hunting, or just wants a happy wife.
The rest of the day was getting Emilia’s junior ranger badge, watching the film at the Bryce Canyon visitor center, getting dinner at Rustler’s Restaurant, waiting for the kids to eat their post-dinner shaved ice painfully slowly, and doing bedtime stuff. Onwards to a new campground tomorrow.
Phil’s Take
The hike this morning was definitely beautiful. I got some up close and personal views of the hoodoos, such as the Queen above, and the small sampling here. The rest are in the gallery.
It started getting especially up close and personal once we reached the Wall St. Part of the Navajo Loop.
I carried Emmett from this point forward. I was a bit frustrated that we had slowed to about a quarter mile per hour, but the kids both did very well. Our bottleneck was the two year old. Needless to say it was the steepest and most strenuous part of the entire hike, and of course that’s when I’m carrying the toddler. Here are some shots of the switchbacks involved.
If you zoom in, you can see how small the people are at the bottom. I guess this was somewhere north of 400 ft elevation gain, though it’s impossible to know exactly how much it was.
I enjoyed our little detour to collect rocks for Megan. I don’t particularly treasure the rocks, but I get that she does, and I’m pretty good at spotting the sort of colors she was looking for in amongst the rocks. I can’t overstate how many of these kinds of rocks there were. We were just combing a very small portion of the area right along the road, and when I veered off of the road, there were just as many in amongst the trees. In some ways they were easier to see since they weren’t scattered amongst some rock they used for the road.
What she didn’t mention about that detour is that we happened upon another canyon that was beautiful, though smaller than the ones in Bryce Canyon National Park.
As for the snow cones, I still do not know how it is possible to eat them that slowly, unless you just like drinking the flavored water. I also do not understand how one chooses a snow cone over ice cream. I got the ice cream and it was good, considering the limited flavors they had.
As always, the entirety of the pictures for the day are in this gallery.
