Bryce Canyon

I'm camping perhaps 30 mi from Bryce Canyon.  It's a pretty drive.

When I arrived I was both cheap and a good steward of the environment.  To take your vehicle into the park, the entrance fee is $35.  To take yourself into the park, it's only $20.  So I parked at the shuttle stop outside the park and took the hop-on-hop-off park shuttle in--and my entrance fee is still good for a week.  That's good, because I'm going back tomorrow.

The shuttles make a big loop through the park (and at a couple stops outside the park for us $20 payers), and in the park they stop at 4 scenic overlooks in the north part of the park.  The first stop is the southernmost, Bryce Point.  It's there that most people experience their first "ooooooooh" moment at Bryce.  I've got to admit, the hoodoos are pretty cool.

I was going to get on the next shuttle and go to the next overlook, but I saw a sign saying that it was only 1.3 mi along the Rim Trail to Inspiration Point.  I can walk 1.3 mi, right?  So I did, and I'm glad I did.  The beauty is infinite; even when looking at the same scene, seeing it from even a slightly different angle changes everything.  Another picture!

Of course I took more pictures from Inspiration Point.  I could've gotten on the shuttle there, but the Rim Trail to Sunset Point was just .7 mi.  Heck, that's barely half of what I just walked, so I continued on.  Same story regarding the views.

From Sunset Point it was only a fraction of a mile to Sunrise Point so I continued on.  It was at Sunrise Point that I caught the shuttle back to the Visitor's Center to buy a t-shirt, and from there caught another shuttle back to my truck.

No entrance fee is needed to drive out to Fairyland Point, so that was my 5th overlook of the day.  Then I drove several miles to Tropic, a town down below Bryce Canyon, to see if I could get any pictures looking "up" instead of down, but alas, the views from down there were not spectacular.

I mentioned earlier that the shuttles go only to the 4 overlooks in the northern part of the park.  What about the southern part?  Well, for that you need either your own vehicle or you can take a special shuttle.  That one runs only twice a day (morning and afternoon) and is about a 3 1/2 hour roundtrip.  And you need reservations.  So I have a reservation for tomorrow afternoon!  At the end of the road is Rainbow Point, where there is a short hike through a bristlecone pine grove.  I hope I have time to take that hike.

Update, 6/26/19:

 I wonder if these pictures will look different on my TV, rather than on my phone or computer screen, because what seems to be missing is just how huge the amphitheater of hoodoos (2nd picture) is!