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Ben, Weihaw, and I hiked the Navajo Loop and Peek-a-boo Loop at
Bryce Canyon National Park.
My original plan was to combine the Navajo Loop, Peek-a-boo Loop,
and connector trail to Bryce Point, returning on the Rim Trail.
But we would later find that wasn't possible.
We started out toward Sunrise Point. Which was wrong, since the
start is at Sunset Point. Oops. We turned around and walked the
half mile to Sunset Point. There was a slightly chill breeze as
we started our hike. It warmed up a bit as the day went on, but
it wasn't nearly as hot as Zion.
Thor's Hammer
We started off by going down the northern section of the Navajo
loop, getting a good look at Thor's Hammer along the way. Since
I didn't think we would be coming back this way, we headed up
the southern section halfway, to Wall Street. This is where Douglas
firs grow seemingly out of nowhere, reaching high up between the
canyon walls. Beyond them is a set of switchbacks leading up to
the top.
Descending towards Wall Street
A Douglas fir on Wall Street
At this point, Jay decided he wanted to read a book and skip the
hike, partly because he'd been to Bryce before. So Ben, Weihaw
and I continued on without him. We headed back down the way we
came, and then went on the western section of the Peek-a-boo loop.
We passed the Wall of Windows and had some great views of the
entire park.
I'm sure this has a name but I don't know what it is.
Wall of Windows
The trail went up and down, climbing 70 feet here, falling another
60 here,. Along the way, we passed a couple of hikers coming the
opposite direction who informed us that the connector trail we
wanted to take to Bryce was closed. We weren't sure if we believed
them, but in any case we could just complete the loop anyway.
View through one of the short tunnels along the trail.
More windows
We encountered a trail maintenance crew right after passing through
a tunnel, and they confirmed the connector trail was closed. At
the stables we saw this was indeed the case. The trail was closed
due to ice and snow. Oh well. We continued back along the eastern
section of the Peek-a-boo loop. Oh, did I say stables? The Peek-a-boo
loop is used as part of a mule ride. And, oh yes, we could smell
it. When we finally reached a place where the smell wasn't prevalent,
we stopped to have lunch. Just as we were finishing, a mule ride
(about 15 of them) passed us in the opposite direction.
Mules coming our way!
Continuing on, we ran into Susan, who we'd seen at Observation
Point the previous day. The interesting thing about doing the
trip the way we did (Zion and then Bryce) is that most people
do the same thing, so we saw some of the same people. The other
thing that was very apparent is that, I'd estimate 75% of the
people we saw at Bryce were international tourists, mostly from
Europe. This may have been enhanced by the fact that it was a
Wednesday, and before most schools had let out for summer.
Ben takes a break on Wall Street
We eventually made our way back to the Navajo Loop, and went up
via Wall Street. Here there's an impressive series of switchbacks.
Near the top, there's a little opening -- maybe 3 feet high, which
people have to go through before reaching a bunch of 15-foot switchbacks.
As I approached them from the bottom, I saw one person come out
of that opening. Then another. And another. Turns out an entire
tour group was going through -- it looked like something straight
out of a cartoon.
A tour group descends the switchbacks
As we went up the remaining switchbacks, I mentioned to Ben that
the visitor center might close, and he actually ran up the switchbacks at the thought of getting his coveted Zion
patch (he didn't, since we were at Bryce). It was only when we
reached the top that we realized the skies had begun to darken,
and clouds covered the sky. It would even rain a few hours later,
but at least we had great weather for our hike.
Return to Zion/Bryce/Grand Canyon trip report.
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