Bryce Canyon Coffee in Tropic, about 10mi from Ruby’s Inn, was one of the few places serving really good coffee & tea. When we drove there for coffee a few days before, we saw the sign for the Mossy Cave Trail. After looking it up on Alltrails.com, we thought it’d be fun to come back to check out the cave. This trail is part of Bryce Canyon National Park but the trailhead & parking lot are well outside the park entrance.
Mossy Cave Trail
This was a short hike to a rather unimpressive alcove, not cave, which is said to have icicles most of the year – none in October. With bushes obscuring most of the alcove plus being inaccessible behind a rail & fence, seeing Mossy Cave was anti-climatic. Still, it was a beautiful morning & a fun hike, but don’t do it for the Mossy Cave. The hoodoos, ‘window’ pinnacle arches & waterfall make the trail worthwhile and more interesting.
After the hike and lunch, we took the scenic drive through Bryce Canyon, stopping at the main viewpoints beyond Bryce Point. The views of Bryce Canyon amphitheater from Sunrise & Sunset Points are hard to beat. But the rest of Bryce Canyon is worth exploring since the vistas and sediment colors change. The Natural Bridge viewpoint was the definitive highlight, no hiking necessary.
Our second hike was another popular and more challenging trail, Peekaboo Loop. The trailhead starts at Bryce Point (8300ft), higher than either Sunrise or Sunset Points. Peekaboo Trail gets it name from the surprises around every corner on the trail and it lives up to its name. The changes in scenery around every bend are amazing – hoodoos, pinnacles, arches, & vistas. The trail descends into the canyon ~1400ft and has an upper and lower loop trail. Since we were not planning on looping back, we took the upper trail which, according to other hikers, offers more to see. We did not want to hike back and ascend the 1400ft up to the Bryce Point. We figured hiking up the Navajo Trail switchbacks to the rim would be a steeper but shorter 500ft ascent. If we had started earlier in the day, we would have done the complete 5.2mi Peekaboo loop.
Peekaboo Loop Trail
Peekaboo to Navajo Trail
We started this hike without having lunch and by the time we were back on top, it was 5pm. We brought plenty of water & snacks on the hike but were ready for a meal. We considered dinner at Bryce Lodge but were worried we’d miss the last shuttle (6pm) waiting for service. So we caught the next shuttle from Bryce Lodge to Bryce Point to pick up the truck. Then headed back to Ruby’s Inn Restaurant for an excellent grilled shrimp dinner. Peekaboo Trail was a spectacular hike – the best one we did in Bryce Canyon. The trail takes you next to, through & under many of the features you see from the viewpoints. If you zoom in on the right side of the 1st photo, you can see people on a viewpoint (Upper Inspiration Viewpoint perhaps).
Other than trails from one viewpoint to another along the rim, most loop down into the canyon and back. Because of their vertical nature, AllTrails.com accurately rates them moderate. These trails are well-groomed but there can be collapses along the way. So mini-tractors are deployed on some trails to clear the path. Wall Street Trail was closed during out visit due to a massive rock fall. Erosion is what forms these hoodoos so the landscape is constantly changing. Queens Garden Trail gets it name from an iconic hoodoo that resembles Queen Victoria (see 1st photo). The Navajo Loop has a series of switchbacks which climb 500+ft through some of the tallest fins & hoodoos. Some knowledgeable hikers prefer to start this route at Sunset Point, descending the Navajo Trail switchbacks then ascend the more-gradual Queens Garden Trail. Being unfamiliar with these trails, we chose to hike from Sunrise Point (Queens Garden trailhead) & ascend Sunset Point (Navajo Trail switchbacks). The switchback ascent really isn’t that bad if you take your time.
Bryce canyon is breathtaking – photos cannot do it’s intricate landscapes justice, even with epic light. This was our first visit to Bryce Canyon and it has a similar appeal as the Grand Canyon but is uniquely different. Grand Canyon impresses with it grandeur. Bryce Canyon with thousands of hoodoos and banded-colored sediments forming spectacular landscapes in every direction. It is a landscape photographer’s paradise when the changing light illuminates the infinite subjects. And at 8000ft in October, you can add wonderful fall colors, especially the Aspens, to the mix.
In September 2021, we took our first RV trip out of California to St. George Utah & Zion National Park. It was such a great trip, we decided to visit southern Utah again in 2022 to explore the many places we missed. Utah is a RV and hiker’s paradise with so many diverse and amazing national & state parks. It’ll take years to see all that Utah offers.
Oceanside>Vegas>Zion>Bryce>Kanab
26 Sept 2022 – Thousand Trails, Las Vegas We bought a Thousand Trails Camping Pass during our Yosemite Trip in July 2022. So we stopped for a one-night layover at their location in Las Vegas. The annual membership allows us to stay at any Thousand Trails campground in the southwest region at no additional cost. Driving 6 hours from Oceanside to Las Vegas is the longest single-day trek we’ve done so far. After a food & fuel break in Barstow, driving a few more hours to Vegas was no problem. We would not hesitate driving this distance again, although heavy traffic in Riverside between the 215 to 15 & in Vegas can be challenging. Thousand Trails Las Vegas is east of the Strip in central Vegas (see map below). It was busy for a Monday & looks like a popular campground. Sites are pretty close together with relatively narrow roads & turns. Site 112 was a level, loose gravel site with full hookups & only one neighbor. This location is the only Thousand Trails RV park between SoCal and Utah and we were glad to find a vacancy on our route.
27 Sep – Oct 1 2022: Springdale, Utah – Zion National Park After one-night in Vegas, we drove to Springdale, the gateway into Zion National Park south. We booked a full-hookup, riverside site for 4 nights at Zion Canyon Campground & RV Resort where we stayed last year. A fantastic location that’s 1/2mi from the entrance to Zion National Park.
Emerald Pools Trail – popular trail near Zion Lodge that treks up to three pools – Lower, Middle, Upper – fed by one waterfall. Pools were small due to the low water level this late in the season.
Zion Canyon Overlook Trail – short popular hike just east of the Zion Tunnel. Great short hike along a mid-canyon trail that ends is a panoramic view of Zion Canyon. Bring plenty of water since none is available anywhere close.
Shelf Canyon Trail – slot canyon trail near Zion Canyon Overlook Trail – looked blocked by recent rockfall(s) so we didn’t make it very far.
Lower Pine Creek Waterfall Trail – lesser known trail that end at a waterfall, a short hike that requires scrambling along the creek bed.
The Narrows Trail is still our favorite hike but it was great to explore other parts of Zion NP. Each of these trails have unique aspects, different terrain & scenery. There are plenty of Zion trails to still to explore, especially the eastern trails.
Driving from Zion to Bryce Canyon The second leg of our trip was to Bryce Canyon and there are a couple routes from Springdale. The shortest route (~1.5hr 75mi) takes you on the winding scenic road through Zion National Park. This route has the historic 1.1mi Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel with a maximum height clearance of 13ft. Taller RVs have to take the longer route around the west side of Zion NP through Hurricane than north on the 15. Towing Howie (~10ft tall, ~3400lbs) with our Tacoma to 8000ft is always a concern since it struggles on long inclines. But since Springdale/Zion is already at 4000ft, the additional 4000ft climb to Bryce was doable. So we took this winding eastbound route on UT-9E through Zion National Park & its mile-long tunnel. For a $15 ‘toll’, they stop oncoming traffic between 8am-7pm – these hours vary seasonally. Towing Howie was a piece-of-cake without any high transmission temperatures issues. It’s a beautiful scenic drive & we were tempted to pull over many times.
Leg 2 Bryce Canyon: 01 – 05 Oct 2022 We booked 4 nights at Ruby’s Inn, an RV resort a few miles outside the park entrance. It’s a huge, full-amenities RV and hotel resort that’s a town in itself – Bryce Canyon City. We reserved a full-hookup, pull-through site that was rustic, in a grove of trees, beautiful but extremely uneven. We repositioned a few time to find the flattest section and it still required 4.5″ to level Howie. The new section of RV sites numbered in the 200s are more spacious, flatter, with fewer trees. If you want more room with more open-sky (for Starlink), definitely consider booking one of theses unshaded sites.
Bryce Canyon National Park has uniquely spectacular vistas. Photos cannot do it justice & capture the wonder of this place. Hikes into Bryce Canyon:
Near Tropic, a nearby town, we hiked the Mossy Cave Trail. After the hike and lunch, we took the scenic drive through Bryce Canyon.
Bryce Canyon is an amazing place with some great hikes. Most take you down into the canyon, which can be vertically challenging. If you are visiting Zion National Park, adding Bryce Canyon to your itinerary is a must. Bryce Canyon was the high point for me this trip.
Leg 3 Kanab: 05-08 Oct 2022 To be honest, after all the hikes and driving, by the time we arrived at Kanab, we were tired. Although retired a few years now, I find it hard to sit & relax by the RV when there are so many unexplored places to see & photograph. But we shortened our 4 night stay to 3 at Kanab RV Corral. Since we shortened our visit by a day and arrived fairly early Wednesday. We spent the afternoon hiking to the Sand Caves just north of town. We also entered the lottery for a Friday permit to hike the Wave. We didn’t get selected so we drove to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s about 75mi south of Kanab but a great drive for fall colors. We had a great day exploring the north rim & enjoyed the panoramic canyon view at the lodge restaurant. We wanted to continue exploring so we drove Cape Royal Road to all the viewpoints. Another high-point was photographing sunset at Cape Royal/Angels Window, although the drive back to Kanab in the dark was challenging.
We wanted to make Day 2 of our drive home shorter so that meant driving further from Kanab Day 1. Stopping at Thousand Trails Las Vegas again would make the Day 2 drive home 6hrs or more. So we opted to stop in Las Vegas to fuel and take a break then continue to Barstow. We stayed at the Barstow/Yermo KOA in 2021 and found it to be an acceptable stopping point from Zion-Utah to Oceanside. So we reserved a pull-thru spot this trip. The site assigned to us this trip was a lot nicer than last year’s. We had trees shading our site and the restrooms were much closer & cleaner.
