A Weekend in Bryce

We have continued our annual tradition of going on a mini trip within Utah for President's Day weekend in February! In 2015, we spent the weekend hiking around Zion National Park near St. George. Last year in 2016, we explored Arches National Park near Moab. This year, it was time to go to Bryce Canyon National Park near Bryce! Dustan was the best husband and planned the trip :)

We decided to not spend the extra money for a hotel on Friday night, and instead left early on Saturday. Really early. Like 4:30 am early. We did this because we needed to be in Bryce at the Ruby Inn by 8:00 am to sign up for the Bryce Winter Festival activities! This was the main reason we decided to go to Bryce was to see this Winter Festival. Throughout the weekend, there were all sorts fun activities, such as snow shoeing tours, archery and ski clinics, art classes, seminars, and more. And pretty much everything was free!! So, we needed to arrive in Bryce by 8:00 am to sign up for the activities we wanted to attend.

The drive to Bryce from Provo was just over three hours. It was pretty uneventful until we gained a bunch of elevation right before reaching Bryce, then the weather hit. The fog was so dense it was difficult to see, and the snow was coming down like crazy! As we drove through Bryce, we could barely even see the shops on the side of the road. But we made it just fine to Ruby's Inn.

After signing up for a variety of activities, we checked in to our hotel room (at Ruby's Inn, the hub of all the activities!) and put on all of our snow gear to go snowshoeing! I had never been before and Dustan had only been a few times, it was a blast. We went with a big group and simply walked around the Dixie National Forest for an hour and learned about the area from a ranger. The crazy weather had calmed down just a little, and it was perfect for a snowshoe stroll.

What all the snow and fog wasn't good for was visiting Bryce Canyon National Park, with its beautiful overlooks and hoodoos. We did a quick visit to the visitor center to get the skinny on the park and sign up for a snowshoe tour the next day, but left without seeing anything. Instead, we went to a pottery "class" (where we just got to play with clay) then to an archery clinic.

The archery clinic was a lot of fun, but so cold! In the snow, wind, and 25 degree weather, you don't really want to be holding a bow and shooting without gloves. But we did it, and it was a lot of fun. Dustan especially loves archery.

After prettying up, we went out to dinner at the Bryce Canyon Pines Restaurant (very yummy and not too expensive) then went to the Winter Festival family dance :) We learned some new line dances just beforehand, then had a blast dancing with families, watching all the little children go crazy, and laughing at the awkward teenagers.

We woke up early on Sunday morning and finally drove up into Bryce Canyon National Park in hopes of watching the sunrise at one of the overlooks. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of problems. It had dumped snow again the night before, and we attempted to get up a hill in the Park three times before finally deciding to put on chains when we kept sliding back down. The chains worked great, but when we finally got up to the overlook, we were met with a wall of fog and no sun or hoodoos in sight. So, we drove back to our hotel and slept a little more before heading to church in Tropic, haha.

Chain success!

The entirety of Bryce Canyon that we could see that morning...

Church was wonderful, and so full! There were so many people visiting during sacrament meeting that they filled the chapel, overflow, and the entire gym.

After church, we went back to the National Park for the snowshoe tour we had signed up for the day before. Sadly, the ranger that signed us up was apparently confused and we were no where on the list... We cut our losses and instead drove around the Park to check out the various overlooks and finally see the Bryce Canyon views for the first time! And it was so incredible!! The views were amazing.

After a little low key exploring, we went back to our hotel room to relax and do some of our usual Sunday activities, such as snacking, writing missionaries, looking through pictures, and Skyping family. We did this until it was almost time for sunset, then we again drove back to the Park to an overlook. We had read online before our trip that sunsets at Bryce Canyon were far less impressive than the sunrises. Though we hadn't seen a sunrise yet, the sunset wasn't too impressive. Still very pretty, but nothing spectacular.

We also took some cute pics in the woods :)

That night, there was a fireside from a LDS man who had climbed the seven summits, the tallest mountain on each continent. He spoke mainly about his experience climbing Mount Everest. It was a very engaging fireside, and also made Dustan really want to hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, haha.

On Monday morning, we again woke up early to go see the sunrise in the Park. This time, it was a success! We drove out to Inspiration Point (all the rangers recommended this over Sunrise Point which many people think would be best) before anyone else was out there and got the best photography spot at the overlook. We had to wait a little bit for sun to rise, but it was so worth it.

Just like on Sunday, we took a quick nap again back at the hotel before the required check out time. We packed up all our stuff then took one last drive into Bryce Canyon National Park. Finally, we were going to do some hiking! A few of the paths were closed, but we ended up doing the Navajo and Peek-A-Boo Loop.

Thor's Hammer rock formation on the right

It was a beautiful hike. Even in the snow and cold weather, we didn't need our jackets for long. We wore our snow boots, which were completely necessary since the path was either very snowy or inches deep in mud. We started on the very short and easy Navajo switchbacks before reaching the Peek-A-Boo Loop.

Though labeled by the Park service as a "strenuous" hike, we thought it was a pretty chill hike (at least compared to other strenuous hikes we had been on, such as Half Dome or Angel's Landing). We climbed and descended a lot, which gave us spectacular views of the hoodoos around us. We do wish the path weaved through the rock structures a little more, but it was still great.

After the Peek-A-Boo Loop, we met up again with the Navajo Loop, climbing the switchbacks back to our car. We had originally planned to also do the Queen's Loop and part of the Rim trail, but it was getting late and we didn't think the sights would be very different on those trails. We stopped by the visitor center on the way out to buy our customary keychain and postcard for our travels.

We are now proud owners of the America the Beautiful Card--the National Parks Annual Pass!! We are hoping to visit Bryce Canyon National Park again this summer and see what it looks like without all the snow, and see some of the roads and paths that were closed due to the snow. And of course, we will visit as many National Parks we possibly can :) High on our list for this summer: Yellowstone, Zion (again!), and Glacier National Park. As always, it was a wonderful three-day weekend adventure!