Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Peekaboo Loop

After shooting sunrise in Bryce Canyon, I headed straight to Bryce Point to hike the Peekaboo Loop.  An early start meant cooler temperatures, fewer other people on the trail, and plenty of time to reach my next destination, Escalante.

The view from the early section of the trail had more trees than Navajo Loop, but was otherwise equally impressive.  I was looking forward to soon being on the canyon floor.

I love that the trail went through this arch.  What a great way to use the natural terrain!  At least, I assume the arch is natural. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The descent was longer and more gradual than Navajo Loop.  I honestly wasn't looking forward to climbing back up later in the morning once temperatures had risen.

The canyon floor had flora other than trees, including Howard's Evening Primrose...

...and Utah Columbine.

One of the trail overlooks provided a perfect opportunity to update my Facebook profile picture.

The trail doesn't go through this narrow slot, but it's still very cool to look through.

The Wall of Windows is one of the more notable landmarks along the trail.  I like the layers below the wall very much, too.

My concerns about the return trek proved to be somewhat unfounded.  I covered the 5.16 miles and an even 1,000 feet of elevation gain in just under three hours (2:51:35).  The heat was just starting to build when I got back to my car, did a quick drive through the rest of the park, and continued on to Escalante!

Related Links:

• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part I
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part II
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016: Mossy Cave Trail
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Navajo Loop and Queens Garden Trail
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Sunset & Sunrise

Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Sunset & Sunrise

My hike of the Navajo Loop and Queens Garden Trail was everything I hoped it would be.  After a quick trip for some ice cream at Sunrise Point, I returned to Sunset Point for its namesake event.

Oddly (to me), Sunset Point faces east.  I've yet to see the sun set in the east.

That said, the overlook provides a nice reminder that you don't have to be looking directly into the sun to enjoy a sunset.  There was nice soft color in the sky, clouds, and rock formations.

A restful night's sleep later, I was the first person at Sunrise Point to await its signature moment.

I had somewhat higher hopes for this, given that I was, in fact, facing the sun.

And ultimately I do feel like this was the more striking view, well worth the early start to the day.  Next up would be another hike in the hoodoos!

Related Links:

• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part I
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part II
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016: Mossy Cave Trail
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Navajo Loop and Queens Garden Trail
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Peekaboo Loop

Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Navajo Loop and Queens Garden Trail

I was fortunate to visit Bryce Canyon National Park with my family back in the summer of 2016.  We didn't stay in the area overnight, so we only had time to drive through and stop at the viewpoints and take a couple of short hikes.  I wanted to get down into the hoodoos, so another stop on this year's road trip was necessary.

I planned to do the Figure Eight Trail, but I arrived early enough that I decided to do the "top half" of the 8 in the early evening and hike the Navajo Loop and Queens Garden Trail.

A hole in the rock reveals an area known as Wall Street.

I had pretty good late afternoon light, but the sun was unfortunately shining directly on Thor's Hammer.  That makes the picture a little meh to me.

Reaching the canyon floor gave me the exactly the experience I had hoped for, with towering rock formations on all sides.

The low sun provided opportunities for fun shots.

Late sun meant warm light, which made the already stunning scenery even more striking.

Climbing back up from the canyon floor wasn't too much of a challenge.  Temperatures late in the day had cooled some, which certainly helped.

Hiking late in the day seemed like a solid choice in terms of the number of other hikers on the trail, which was pretty low.  I had little trouble getting shots empty of people.

Late sun also meant long shadows, which added a nice touch of drama.

Three miles and just 567 feet of elevation change in 1:42:58, and a more manageable hike for the following day.  My early arrival had already paid dividends!

Related Links:

• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part I
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part II
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2016: Mossy Cave Trail
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Sunset & Sunrise
• Bryce Canyon National Park 2024: Peekaboo Loop

Bryce Canyon National Park 2016: Mossy Cave Trail

There's a part of Bryce Canyon National Park which, if you're on the main park road, you actually have to leave the park to get to. It's the Mossy Cave Trail. With the recommendations I read about it being a nice little hike with a scenic payoff, I convinced my family to let me go check it out.

The clouds had turned into full overcast conditions, which at least allowed for long shutter speeds when shooting some moving water.  I was surprised to learn that the creek was actually created by pioneers who needed to find an irrigation source for the towns of Tropic and Cannonville.

I really wanted to shoot from the foot of this waterfall.  But there was no trail to get there, and I was reluctant to lug my camera and tripod down the slippery, wet rocks.  So I found the best vantage point I could.

Mossy Cave itself was a bit of a letdown.  More of an overhang than a cave like I think of one.  And not especially mossy, although that's likely somewhat seasonal.

The stream was much more interesting to me, even from a fairly healthy distance away,

The clouds began to transition from uniform gray to more varying shades on my way back to the car.

I even got a decent break and some blue sky as I finished up.  Overall I'd say the trail is worth checking out.  But for the waterfall and not the cave!

Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part II

Click here for Part I.

Clouds had rolled in and filled the skies over Bryce Canyon National Park as we made our way back north on the main park road.  It seemed like conditions for well-lit landscape photos might be done for the day.

But fortune -- and the sun -- smiled on us as we approached Natural Bridge.  A small break in the cloud cover provided nice light on the formation with a great mix of blue sky and clouds overhead.

I shot, re-composed, and shot again quickly, knowing my light wouldn't last long.

It didn't.  I had a couple of minutes at most between my first shot and this one, then the sun disappeared again.  But a couple of minutes was fortunately all I needed.

Thunder came next, and despite the rumble and accompanying rain we still stopped at Inspiration Point.  The crowds had dissipated enough for us to grab a good parking spot, but the threatening weather caused the rest of my family to scurry back to the car.  I was not to be deterred, and headed to the overlook with my hat over my camera to protect it from the rain.

It was a good decision, even if the conditions weren't so good themselves.  The view here of the hoodoos was the best in the park.

I did my best to wipe the raindrops off my polarizing filter, shoot a couple of shots, then repeat.  Honestly, I think if the conditions were a little worse my shots would have been more dramatic.

The aptly named Thor's Hammer.  A shot of this formation from down near ground level would probably be much more impressive, but you work with what you have.

I was extremely jealous of the people down hiking amongst the hoodoos.  Alas, there was no time in our schedule to do the same.  But it's always nice to have an excuse to return to a place.

The rain abated enough for me to shoot a series of vertical images to stitch together for a panoramic.  The opportunity to do this at sunrise or sunset someday would be fantastic.  That's two reasons!

With that, we took our leave of Bryce Canyon.  Sort of.  I'll explain in my next post!

Bryce Canyon National Park 2016, Part I

The fourth and final National Park we visited on our summer road trip was Bryce Canyon. It was a couple of hours away from where we were staying near St. George, and not directly on our route back home. But it was one of those "when exactly are we going to be closer?" decisions, since the best answer we could come up with that question was "never." So we got an early start and headed out.

The park has a perfect setup for what we were in the mood for, too.  One road in and out, no shuttles required.  We could stop where we wanted to, skip what we didn't, and if the kids wanted to stay in the car and catch Pokemon, well, that was their prerogative.  First stop was Sunrise Point, which certainly looked like it would be a beautiful place first thing in the morning.  It wasn't too shabby mid-morning, either.

I had the tripod and the auto-bracket in full effect for this place, which enabled me to stitch together 18-image HDR panoramics like this one.

Working with a single shot seems quaint in the face of the previous construction.  But sometimes, it captures the moment just fine.

We skipped the other spots overlooking the Bryce Amphitheater for now due to high volumes of tourists.  No, the irony is not lost on me.  By Farview Point things were much less congested.  Enough so that another mega-panoramic was in order.

Clouds were starting to roll in, but that was far from a bad thing.  Just the opposite, in fact.  My favorite skies for shooting sweeping vistas like these are partly cloudy ones -- plenty of texture but still plenty of sunlight.

My semi-obsession with shooting dead trees goes back for years.  No need to rehash the details, but here's another one for the collection.

Yovimpa Point marks the end of the road, and by this point the clouds had gotten even thicker.  I had to wait for a decent break to get some direct sunlight.

Oddly one of my shots didn't bracket and my stitching software won't join it with this image and the previous one.  So instead have another nice panoramic I have two decent but unremarkable shots. Shame, because I like the falling rain in this one but would prefer to see it as a part of a larger scene.

All that was left was to turn around and head back for the entrance.  But there would be stops along the way!

Click here for Part II.