A Canyon of Amphitheaters

Onward to Bryce

You can see it from a distance, across a vast open valley at the tip top of what they call The Grand Staircase, a set of plateaus that rises in stepped chunks from a valley floor that starts where the northern bit of the Kaibab plateau ends. Below 4800 feet rising all the way to where Bryce Canyon sits at right around 9000 feet in elevation. Simply staggering to behold, a rainbow of rock with each step being of a different era and color and sitting at one of the high points you can just make out the amphitheater at Yovimpa Point it’s shade of pink standing out just enough to see. Almost a hundred miles away from the Le Fevre Overlook and Rest Area on US-89A at the northern end of the Kaibab Plateau. I had no idea that I would be in for one of the most beautiful drives I’d ever taken when I woke up that morning on the edge of the Grand Canyon, that my trip would just continue to be more and more grandiose with each subsequent mile. I knew Bryce was beautiful, you can tell that from pictures, again without seeing the true scale of everything but you get enough to understand that seeing it will change you, but my oh my was I ill prepared for just how fantastic and fantastically beautiful the drive would be.

I don’t have many pictures after I left the Kaibab, I was too awestruck in that first hour after I left the overlook to have the wherewithal to pull out any sort of camera. Even the lowland valley which is still sitting around 4800 feet in elevation had a magnificence to it I couldn’t quite believe. Kanab, Utah looked like another Moab as I drove through it’s quaint downtown and then as the highway alternates between following rivers, first the Kanab Creek then the East Fork Virgin River, and being atop plateaus each new layer even more brilliant in color than it appeared from that great distance it was too much to focus on all things and try to remember to snap some photos. Stunning country, truly, a place I long to return to so as to explore even more.

As the drive climbed I began seeing the occasional outcropping full of pink Hoodoos, Bryce has the highest concentration of these beautifully odd rock formations within its amphitheaters but smaller ones can be found sprinkled throughout the area leading up to it. The higher parts of the drive were beautiful evergreen forests and alpine meadows, it is truly a spectacular change in scenery from the lowland plains to the rocky desert canyons then higher still into alpine meadows and forests. Diversity of surroundings is what makes Utah especially its southern half so miraculously gorgeous, there’s a joke in Kansas and pretty much everywhere else in the Midwest that if you don’t like the weather wait a minute it’ll change, or that it’s the only place you’ll see four seasons in a day. It’s true, the weather will and does change on a complete dime but the only place I’ve ever been that has a different climate every few miles is southern Utah.

Eventually it came time to turn off of US-89A and onto state highway 12, the valley is bordered on the east by a wall of red rocks and as you turn onto Utah-12 you aim right at them. Dixie National Forest and more specifically Red Canyon, the highway slices right through the middle and boy I was again unprepared for what lay before me and again I was staggered. Hoodoos, rusty red dirt and rocks everywhere and beautiful evergreens. I didn’t even mind the slower traffic because it gave me time to take in the sights and actually capture them.

I feel like one could spend weeks traipsing across southern Utah and still not see everything there is to see, I wasn’t even aware of Dixie National Forest and Red Canyon when I set out to make this journey and yet here it was blowing my mind and building up the anticipation for what was to come. Campsite turnoffs left and right, at one point even a couple of small tunnels through red cliffs. It truly is the simple things in life that can make all the difference. I’ll confess to you reader I come from the flat(ish) land of Kansas and we didn’t do a lot of travelling when I was younger, I didn’t fly on an airplane until I was 25 and although since turning 23 (almost ten years ago now) I’ve been on a mission to travel and see more and more of the States let alone the world I still haven’t seen enough to keep me from being absolutely floored by things like this. So if I’m waxing too poetic about an area that’s simply a red sandstone canyon I apologize but I just can’t help myself.

The first tunnel, yes there was quite a bit of traffic through this section, a small van that had been outfitted as an over landing vehicle was holding us up but in places like this how can you be upset that you get to spend more time enjoying such wonderful landscapes and views. I often feel we make too much of the bad in our experiences visiting National Parks and Monuments, “Too many people” “So crowded” “Just some rocks” “Too many bugs” “Not much to look at” it is almost like there is a movement to just rag on them and a race to be the first person to declare that each one is overrated or not worth it but that’s nonsense. Don’t take the opinion of someone’s tik tok video or tweet or Instagram story or god forbid the fucking google review. DON’T READ THE BAD GOOGLE REVIEWS. Unless of course the desk or wall in your immediate vicinity is in desperate need of a head shaped hole in the center of it. Other people’s experiences matter, don’t get me wrong I’m literally writing a blog about one such experience but the problem becomes parsing such information. Even me, I may be nothing like any of you, I may be insane in your eyes but I hope that through my words I can inspire you to ignore any detractors to any place and try to see the beauty within and to also ignore the crowds because even though yes they are there usually in full force, that’s good it means everyone is utilizing our public lands and with any luck that means we will strive to preserve more. I’ve seen a few of the Instagram Vs Reality Tik Tok videos of National Parks and I understand the premise that just because you see a picture of a view at say Horseshoe Bend and see this majestic stunning place and no people around doesn’t mean it isn’t jam packed but as I’ve said in previous blogs that is inconsequential. The whole idea is that you are in a place so beautiful you can blank out those around you and focus on the view, exactly what I did when I was at Horseshoe Bend on this very trip, I ignored the crowd and focused on the absolutely massive cliff I was on and the beautiful bend in the river. You can also get to the park early in the morning or later in the evening which usually end up being the best times anyway because the lighting is perfect. Anyway end of rant, sorry but I just feel like it needed to be said.

As you climb out of Red Canyon you come into a wide open valley floor still at elevation, somewhere just below 8000 feet, surrounded by mountain ridges north, south, east, and west. In the distance to my northeast were a set of clouds slowly building, I could see rain pouring from one of them which would be a sort of prelude to what was about to happen a bit further into my journey that day. The road eventually turned into a mass of roadwork, a roundabout being built where there had just been a stoplight and now gravel where asphalt would someday lay. I came into the town of Bryce, which lies directly north and adjacent to the park, I didn’t stop. A surge of adrenaline hit and I had to control myself to keep from speeding as I approached the entrance. The line to get in was maybe 6 cars deep across three ticket shacks so it took almost no time to get through even at 10 in the morning. The visitor center was pretty full but not annoyingly so, parking was still available and the crowd inside wasn’t to hard to navigate. I purchased some typical souvenirs, wandered through the exhibit adjacent to the gift shop then made my way back to my car having settled on my destination. Rainbow Point.

I didn’t have enough time, I needed more, I should’ve found a place to stay here somewhere to give myself an extra day to explore, see more of what this beautiful place has to offer. Utah has 5 National Parks after this trip I had been to my third and fourth of them. My first time in Utah was Moab last summer and Arches, beautiful, stunning we didn’t get to see all of it but we saw our fair share. Then this April Canyonlands, the Island in the Sky district floored me and a return to Arches solidified my view of it as an astonishing place. I’d wondered after seeing Canyonlands just how any of the other parks in Utah could beat it but then I looked out across Bryce Canyon from Rainbow Point and I immediately knew.

Time ticked by and I wandered around the point eventually heading toward Yovimpa the amphitheater on Rainbow Point that looks south toward the Kaibab plateau and as I crested the hill and came upon the lookout point the ominous clouds that had been creeping ever closer decided it was time to start watering the forest. Rain came down, wind picked up and I even saw some flurries, it made for a very interesting drive back down but also simply spectacular scenery.

Along the route to Rainbow Point and back were pull outs for scenic view points which combined with the rain made the drive back into a sort of marathon scavenger hunt. Drive, drive, drive oh quick pull off!! Steady, wait for the rain to slow a bit, okay run. Out of the car up to the edge or up the path to the view point, take in the view as long as you could stand, take a picture and move on to the next one.

Even with the hectic nature of my drive back down the spine of Bryce Canyon the views were so spectacular and stunning that it hardly mattered. Eventually I came to the Bryce Natural Bridge a beautiful natural arch that looks as if a gigantic drill bored a near perfect circle through a cliff with its perfectly round top, an astonishing thing to behold and peer through.

I finally took in the last of this marvellous place that time allowed before I drove north, stopping for some snacks and gas then heading out of Bryce and into John’s Valley eventually driving the scenic route 14 through Capital Reef National Park. Another beautiful set of places full of wondrous views. Alas, a tale for another time.

Wandering Toto

- 2021