Bryce Canyon National Park - Day 1

Saturday, September 30th

Ray wanted to get some pictures of Bryce Canyon's Amphitheater at first light. We were out the door with coffee in hand at 6:15 am driving through the park in the dark. Wahoo ... missed the entrance  to the viewpoint and had to turn around. That made the difference of being exactly where Ray wanted to be standing and about 4 feet that was not in the "right spot". Unbelievably, there was about 20 people all standing at Bryce Point at 6:30 in the morning.

Unfortunately the sun only made an appearance for about 1 minute as the skies were pretty cloudy. Oh well, Ray is going back tomorrow without me. lol I did find him an alternative spot though for the shot he wants to get if there are too many people again.

Here are some of the pre-sunrise pictures of the Amphitheater.

Bryce Amphitheatre pre-dawn. Still pretty awesome.

Here comes the sun!

All these sunrise shots happened in about 90 seconds then the sun went behind the clouds. After that we carried on to a couple of other view points to scout them out with the early morning light. Here are some pictures of Sunrise Point showing the trails down into the canyon.

Here's the horse trail to the bottom of the canyon.

Next up was the Fairyland Viewpoint

Forming Hoodoos

Sunrise at Fairyland Point

Sunrise at Fairyland Point

Sunrise at Fairyland Point

Ray and I stopped at the Visitor's Center on the way out as we didn't get the park info as the booth was closed when we came through early this morning. Then we saw this! Holy Cow!, now that is a solar panel! There are actually 2 of them but the second one is hidden in behind this one.

Think this would fit on the top of our motorhome?

Just before coming back to the campsite we toured Forest Service Road 090, which is right outside Bryce National Park's boundary that I had noted on Freecampsites.net. There are several spots that would fit our size.  This is where we may go for a couple of days when we leave here Monday morning if there is some more pictures Ray would like to take. Most of the campsites are within .4 miles from the turnoff and the road gets rough after that.  There is also another road a little closer to Ruby's Inn and Campsites, FSR 1173 that has a couple of spots too. Best part it is only 1/4 mile from Bryce Canyon National Park entrance.

We saw a herd of pronghorn antelope in the meadow down FSR 090.

Having a morning rest.

We were back home by 9:30 am to let Freya out for a walk. Once we had breakfast I took off into Panguitch, a 30 minute drive back to the turnoff at Highway 12. We need some groceries as we are going into smaller places for the next 2 weeks and nothing here in Bryce was worth the money. The grocery store there had something of everything, including fresh meat at good prices. They also have a limited selection of beer. Unfortunatey the liquor store was not open until noon, so I decided not to wait 1/2 an hour for it to open. On the way there, I stopped to get a picture of the "tunnels" we had to drive through with the motorhome to get to Bryce. 5 years ago, with our big fifth wheel we chickened out and stayed in Hatch.  They have a limit of 13'6". We did it with no problem ... I did not even duck!

Also fuel was much cheaper here! Bryce was $3.10 for diesel and $2.85 for gasoline. Here in Panguitch $2.61 for gas and $2.71 for diesel. They even had propane.

On the way back I took a quick drive through the National Forest Campsite, about 10 miles south of Bryce. Loop A has several sites that would fit our large size and the road around was okay although narrow. Not too bad for $18/night.

Back home it was time to change our bed and wash the bedding in preparation for the next 2 weeks of probably dry camping. After an hour or so enjoying the sunshine outside, Ray and I jumped back in the car and headed to the Fairyland Overlook. We had scouted it out earlier this morning and thought that afternoon shots would be better.

Here are some more shots of the Fairyland Overlook taken at about 3 pm. Just a really short drive as it is the first turn even before you get through the park gates.

Back home again ... by 4 and time for a "toes up" for Ray and I sat outside for awhile. Although the temps were hovering around 68F there was quite a cool wind so I came inside for the rest of the day. We did do a lot of walking today, especially this morning so time to relax for the evening.