Of Canyons, Crowds and Cattle
September 18, 2013
Mornings in Bryce Canyon in September are cold. It's this cold that is the main force behind the creation of the hoodoos. Moisture seeps into the cracks and crannies of the sandstone, where it freezes in the non-summer months. When it freezes the ice expands, cracking apart the rocks. The process is known as frost wedging. Wind and rain also play their parts, helping to force loosened rocks out of place. I guess Bryce Canyon isn't technically even a canyon since it wasn't carved by flowing water.
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| Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
What's the point, aside from a geology lesson and noting I froze my tootsies off making breakfast in the morning? The monsoon storms of the previous week had wreaked a bit of havoc on the hoodoos and walls of the not-a-canyon. All of the trails into the not-a-canyon's amphitheater were closed due to rockfall except for the Queen's Garden Trail. Only one trail down, that would have to be my destination for the day.
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| Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
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| Rockfall at Capitol Reef |
I left out the story of the minor avalanche I half witnessed at Capitol Reef in my previous post. It occurred Monday afternoon. I'd hiked up close to a large red cliff to have a look at the formations. As I was walking away, I heard the unmistakable sound of large rocks falling. I turned and saw a large cloud of dust near the top of the cliff. I took a few pictures but it's not obvious what's going on. It looks like there are a couple of petroglyphs in the picture, though. Needless to say, I was taking the idea of a large boulder falling on my head rather seriously.
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| Meditation |
So, after I'd made myself a nice pancake breakfast with coffee, I got in my car to drive to the amphitheater parking lot. The lot was full except for one little spot at the end of the loop that was tucked in behind a large motor home. This should have warned me that there was going to be a problem. It didn't. It was when I ran into the families with baby strollers on the trail that I knew this day wasn't going to shape up the way I had planned.
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| Queen's Garden Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
The Queen's Garden Trail was jammed with people. There was only one trail down into the amphitheater, so everyone who wanted to go down had to use it. Don't get me wrong, I love being in a crowd at an event like a concert or a baseball game. Crowds can be a lot of fun. This was not how I wanted to spend my day at the park, though.
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| Least Chipmunk -- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
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| Short-horned Lizard |
I noticed that the Rim Trail heading North looked pretty empty, so I went in that direction instead. I hiked out to Fairyland Point and back. I only ran into a few people on that trail. They, like me, were looking to avoid the big crowds. I found a nice secluded hill just off the trail with some amazing views of the canyon. I took a short siesta beneath a tree there. I saw a tiny little horny toad. I didn't make it down into the hoodoos, but I had a nice relaxing morning away from the herd, so no regrets.
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| Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
Well, when I say I have no regrets, what I mean is I have no regrets about avoiding that big crowd. I would have been miserable. I should have gone back early Thursday morning, though. I was up before dawn again, I could have hiked in and out before anybody even showed up. That didn't occur to me until some point Thursday afternoon in Nevada. D'oh!
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| Utah Prairie Dog -- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
For the afternoon's adventure, I drove out to the Whiteman Trail head. It's a one mile trail that connects with the Under-the-Rim back country trail. There was one car at the trail head, and I passed a couple on my way down the trail, but other than that I didn't see any people on this short hike.
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| Whiteman Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
Whiteman Trail weaves through a burned out section of the forest. It ends by connecting to the Under-the-Rim Trail at Swamp Canyon. I didn't know about Swamp Canyon when I headed out. See, there were these fliers around the park with a picture of a big black bear, saying this particular bear had been seen hanging out around Swamp Canyon. I was pretty sure I was headed to Swamp Canyon after I saw the bear tracks in the mud on the trail, though.
There were a lot of tracks on the trail. I thought they were probably elk tracks, since they were too big to be deer or pronghorn. I'm no animal tracker, mind you. I ran into the owners of the feet that made those tracks near the bottom of the trail.
Cattle in Bryce Canyon? Huh?
There's a famous quote that has been ascribed to Ebenezer Bryce (after whom the not-a-canyon is named) about the not-a-canyon: "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow." These cows and bull were apparently lost. Cattle and sheep used to range freely in Bryce Canyon, but that was put to an end fifty years ago. Apparently some still find their way onto the park.
Yeah, that bull did not like me. I have over a dozen pictures of him, and he's always glaring at me.
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| Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
The payoff to this hike, aside from getting the stink eye from that bull, was what felt like my own personal view of a less visited area of the park.
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| Bryce Canyon National Park, UT |
As I turned around to head back up the hill a I saw a large flash of brown in the trees. My heart jumped into my throat. The black bear had come to eat me! Honestly, there was a couple seconds of panic there, I'm not sure what I was doing. Running? Walking? Crying? I was trapped with my back to the cliff.
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| A ravenous bear? |
Once I got my wits about me I took a second look. It wasn't a black bear at all, it was just a straggler from the lost herd. She was actually very sweet looking. She stopped right on the side of the trail and I thought about trying to pet her, but I gave her a wide berth instead.
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| You shall not pass! |
That was pretty much it for my full day at Bryce. I did take one other micro-hike around the campground and ran into another horny toad. This one was probably five times as large as the first one I saw. It's hard for me to believe they're the same species, but all I've been able to figure out is that they're some sort of short-horned lizard.
If you're looking for jaw-dropping views, you may not be able to top Bryce Canyon. The Grand Canyon might have Bryce by a hair in that category. I'm not so sure, though. Not only are the hoodoos amazing, but it seems like you can see forever. there's a horizon out there, but I don't think I've ever seen it look so far away as it does from the edge of amphitheater.
Point Lobos is my favorite day trip destination. It's less than two hours away and the range of wildlife to be seen is astounding. It's one of the prettiest little stretches of coastline I've ever seen. Seeing sea otters is almost guaranteed there.
I only made it out to Yosemite three this year. No, scratch that, four times, but once I only drove through on my way home from Utah. So much to explore, so little time. The problem, of course, is the crowds. The valley is downright congested in the summer. The good news is there's a whole lot of other areas to explore, and they're far less crowded.
Capitol Reef was actually a last-minute addition to my fall road trip. I'd been hoping to go to the North rim of the Grand Canyon but the camp sites were all booked up. I shuffled a few things around and worked Capitol Reef in instead. I wish I'd spent two nights here rather than at Bryce Canyon. Not that Bryce wasn't amazing, but Capitol Reef was amazing, too, and far less crowded. This park is a gem.
Death Valley is a huge park. I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. I'm sure this is someplace I'll visit often in the coming years.
