Neither Maggie had not spent very much time in Bryce Canyon and her sister had never been there before. So we decided to go there the morning after we saw Cymbeline at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. The drive from Cedar City is less than two hours and is very scenic. First you go up Cedar Canyon, which narrows and provides ever better scenery. Then you are at the top, where you look down to the southwest at Zion National Park. You cross the Markagunt Plateau, which has meadows, lava flows and a lake. Then, finally, you cross the Pansagunt Plateau, which follows a fork of the Sevier River before it crosses the Red Rock Recreation Area. Finally, you arrive at Ruby Inn and the entrance to Bryce. We decided to not drive but to take the shuttle instead. At a couple of stops this [proved to be a wise decision because there was no parking available.
We took the shuttle to the Visitor Center first to get oriented or reoriented, as the case may be. National Park Visitor Centers usually have a good exhibit about the geology and natural history of the area. Bryce is no exception. They also had a short orientation slide show depicting the seasons. As usual, it was very informative. From there, we took the shuttle to Bryce Point, the first of the stops. The shuttle does not go very far south in the park. You would have to drive to get to the trail with the bristlecone pines at Rainbow Point. While there are similarities between all of the viewpoints, they each have their differences, as well. Bryce Point's main feature was that you walk out onto a point, where you are surrounded by hoodoos on three sides. You can also see broad vistas to beyond Bryce, where the plateau is lower and flattens out again. Tropic and Cannonville readily come to view, as do the Vermillion Cliffs in the distance. We walked out to the point and enjoyed the view.
The next stop was Inspiration Point. The view from there was more limited. You saw into the bowl, which was quite impressive, with lots of hoodoos contrasting with the pines below. People looked like ants down below on the trail. We walked out to the viewpoint. enjoying the relatively cool weather. After all, it was in the low 90's here and closer to 110 degrees in Las Vegas! Sunset Point provided the widest vantage point. You are surrounded again on three sides by the canyon, but you are not out on as narrow a point. The area is large, and you can see off into the distance towards the White Cliffs and the Book Cliffs beyond. This is the area where we also encountered the most people. All were enjoying the colors and the shapes below.
We did not stop at the lodge but declared the intention of staying there some fall when the leaves were turning. The next and final stop we took was at Sunrise Point. The shuttle was not going to Fairyland Point any more. Sunrise Point was probably the most disappointing stop. The parking lot was the smallest and most crowded; we knew now that we had been wise to take the shuttle. There were not as many hoodoos at this site and this is the area where horse back rides start. You could tell this even if you didn't read the signs because of the smell of horse urine that permeated the area. We looked at the view for a few minutes before we returned to the shuttle stop and left. From there we went back to the Ruby Inn for a late lunch. We were not alone and enjoyed, with others, a good barbecue sandwich before getting into the car for the return drive to Las Vegas.
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