Bonus Chapter 3: Eye Candy
It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at
Bryce Canyon National Park.
Bryce Canyon was not new to us—this was one of the sites
we’d visited as a family back in 2014. We absolutely loved it there, and were eager to see it and explore it in more depth. The exploration was our “unfinished business” here. In 2014, we hadn’t been able to hike inside the amphitheater at all since we were dragging a baby around with us (don’t worry, the baby was fine). So our goal was to explore Bryce Canyon from a different perspective—below the rim.
But, it was already later in the day, and we’re extremely lazy. So we’d do that the next day.
Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all. It’s an amphitheater. The canyon is named for Ebenezer Bryce, who was an early settler and farmer in the area and is known for one of the greatest quotations about a National Park in world history. When asked about the unique rock formations of the area, he looked around at the splendor and majesty of God’s creation and said, “Well…it’s a hell of a place to lose a cow.”
The park is known primarily for the red-rock spires reaching into the sky called “hoodoos”. No one really knows where that term comes from. I’ve done extensive research on the subject (i.e. I typed a question into Google), and it’s suggested that it might be an alteration of “voodoo” or that it might be meant to evoke a spooky feeling. Those explanations sound like a stretch to me. My theory is that some visitor asked someone else (maybe our buddy Ebenezer?) what in the heck they call those things, and possibly one or both of them struggled to find a word until, in the grand tradition of such descriptive terms as “doohickeys” and “thingamabobs”, they coughed up “hoodoos”.
We entered the park and immediately drove all the way to the end of the scenic drive (18 miles from the entrance). Most guide books will recommend that you tour the park this way, since all of the viewpoints are on the east side of the road. Going to the end and working your way back means you’re only making right turns to reach the viewpoints.
Rainbow Point is the overlook at the end of the road, and it’s one of the best views in the park. The viewpoint is on a high ridge overlooking the amphitheater, and you can see for miles around on a clear day. I’d try and describe it further, but I won’t do any better than to just show you photos.
I wouldn’t be exaggerating by much to say we could have stood there all evening, just soaking in the view. But there are many more gorgeous views to take in.
One of Julie’s favorites is an overlook where you can see an arch.
If you’re lucky, you can see an arch with a hot model next to it.
It was getting close to dinner time, so we left a bit early to try and beat the tourist rush. There are only 2 restaurants in the park—the restaurant at the Bryce Canyon Lodge, which is an upscale dining room, and the Valhalla Pizzeria, which serves crappy pizza. If you want anything else, you have to leave the park and search along Rt. 12, but pickings are slim. In 2014 we’d tried Foster’s Family Steakhouse (now re-named the "UpTop Steakhouse") and it was…fine. We decided to trust Trip Advisor and try
Bryce Canyon Pines this time around.
This is a mom-and-pop family restaurant and hotel located about 5 miles from the entrance to the park. It serves your standard sandwiches and comfort food entrees and appeared to mostly get good reviews online for its homemade pies.
Well, I’m never one to pass up pie, so that was an easy call.
I’m also never one to pass up mozzarella sticks. Plus, it was vacation, and there were no kids to steal appetizers, and calories don’t count when you’re on vacation. Oh, and the doctor put me on cholesterol medication, which magically counteracts any negative effects of unhealthy foods you might happen to eat. So we got some mozzarella sticks. And they were wonderful.
One nice aspect of the restaurant was that they provided entertainment for us while we waited for our order.
Julie got some sort of turkey/cranberry sandwich and I went with a chicken cordon bleu sandwich. I made it a Hawaiian cordon bleu by adding a slice of grilled pineapple. They were pretty good.
The highlight was indeed the pie. I chose peach while Julie went with chocolate crème.
Julie seemed especially excited about hers.
Were they as good as mom’s? No. But better than most store-bought and restaurant pies I’ve had. If I return to Bryce Canyon, I will most likely return here for dinner.
We drove back to the park and checked into the Bryce Canyon Lodge. I’d managed to reserve a cabin for the night. In 2014, we’d stayed at a Best Western just outside the park. This was an improvement in every way. There’s no substitute for being able to stay within walking distance of a natural wonder.
We really loved staying here. I think the cabins had been recently renovated—they were a cut above most national park hotels, which are typically bare-bones, old buildings. There was no TV, but that’s kind of the point of getting away to a national park.
At dusk, we drove to another one of my favorite viewpoints in the park—Bryce Point. This is the only overlook where you can face west and see the setting sun over the amphitheater. It provides a stunning view of the expanse of the park.
We walked a short way up the path and were greeted this this panorama. In this light, it looked like a painting. A masterpiece, actually.
We wandered out to the main overlook with dozens of our new closest friends, all jockeying for position for sunset photos. And then we did our best to find a setting that captured the color of the sky, the sun reflecting off the clouds, and the amphitheater below. It wasn’t easy. Thank goodness for digital, where you don’t have to worry about wasting shots.
It also happened to be the 4th of July, and the Best Western a few miles away was celebrating with fireworks. It’s not often you can say you saw fireworks from above, but it was a neat perspective.
We tried staying up for complete darkness in order to see the night sky. Bryce Canyon is known for exceptional night skies, and
we’d been treated to a stunning display in 2014—several shooting stars and a nice view of the Milky Way. But we didn’t make it this time around. We were still on East Coast time, and Julie hit the wall hard. By the time it got dark, it was past midnight back home, and it felt like that to us. Julie tried to get settings dialed in on the camera, but you have to use manual focus at night, and it was almost impossible to see any of the settings. She was getting frustrated and tired and begged to go back to the cabin, so we ended up packing up and heading in for the night.
As I looked up, the starry sky was spectacular once again. I’m glad we at least got to see it again, even if we didn’t get any photos this time around.
Coming Up Next: One of the best hikes we’ve ever done.