As noted in the Great Basin posting, we had decided to use Cedar City as a hub for the rest of our trip although our use extended far from the historic Union Pacific Railroad advertisements in the 20's in which they promoted Cedar Breaks,  Bryce,  Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where access was from the tourism gateway of Cedar City.

We set out early in the morning to make a 2-hour stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument which is a mini-Bryce Canyon located off of Hwy 14.  Unfortunately there was construction near Hwy 148 which is access to the park so we drove on switchbacks for miles and miles behind construction trucks going 10-20 miles per hour.  We did have the unexpected aspen trees to entertain us.  Marilyn saw a mule deer but my eyes were on the road.  The visitor center at Cedar Breaks opened at 9:00 so we got a brochure and cancellation.  We passed on the bristlecone trail there having just experienced such a great trail at Great Basin, instead choosing to try the Alpine Pond Trail.  At the trailhead for the southern access to Alpine Pond there was a warning that the trail was treacherous but we started down it anyway.  When the snow banks got knee deep plus (they had the same snow storm as mentioned earlier) we turned back then attacked the trail on the northside.  This part of the trail was fine but longer but we did get to see the Alpine Pond.  The park was very quiet.  After that, on to Bryce.

Before getting to Bryce, one turns on Scenic Hwy 12 where one sees immediately the picturesque Red Canyon and the crowds that one would expect are headed to Bryce Canyon, a national park that records up to 2 million visitors each year.  We had to change plans after we arrived at Ruby's Inn (neat place- historic) since storms were on the horizon and we were not sure we could scamper up from the bottom of the canyon(ampitheater) as fast as the Holly's did.  Our goals were:

Hike to the bottom of Bryce Canyon
Scenic Drive stopping at all viewpoints
Bristlecone pines
Stargazing
Tour of Bryce Canyon Lodge by Gilbert Stanley Underwood

We decided to postpone the 'hike to the bottom'  until the next morning ( turned out to be a very good decision) in favor of the Scenic Drive and maybe an easy hike or so.  But first we went to the Bryce Canyon Lodge then to the rim trails to see the hoodoos.  We went to Sunset Point for a view of switchbacks, then wondered if  we really wanted to make that trail !!!

At the southernmost part of the Scenic Drive at Yovimpa Point we did their Bristlecone Loop Trail. It was nice but not the quality of the Great Basin Bristlecone Trail.  I should note that Bristlecones grow at high altitudes usually at the tree line so they are not easy to visit.  This seems incongruous since the first three places we visited had moderate trails to them.  Guess what, we also saw a few aspen.  The access to Inspiration Point was tougher than we thought but expected to return at dawn for the sunrise special.  Ended up deciding to go to Bryce Point instead to view the Bryce Canyon sunrise. There was no stargazing because it was cloudy at dusk and our senior bones called out for an early bedtime.

Now the game plan was to get up early for sunrise then head into the canyon for the main reason to go to the park.  On the way to Bryce Point we saw three pronghorned antelope.  Neat!!  The sunrise was nice but not quite as spectacular as I had hoped - guess my expectations were too high.  Afterwards it was time to take the plunge into the canyon.  We snacked at the Sunset Point area then headed down the Rim Trail to Sunrise Point - this strategy was recommended by the park rangers to make it a complete loop.  The rangers had all recommended that we do the trails clockwise even though that meant that returning to the rim would be steepest.  So we headed down Queen Victoria's Trail which was very quiet, easy and cool.  When we got to the Two Bridges/Wall Street juncture, we took the Two Bridges Trail back up to the rim since the Wall Street Trail was closed because of rock slides.  We climbed easily out to Sunset Point since it was still cool and we were not rushed in any way.  I recommend this approach since in the early morning there are usually some wildlife, no storms, no crowds (eating breakfast I guess) and it is temperature-wise cool!  Being there in the middle of the day would have been too much for our senior stamina.  Had we done that, I'm sure we would not have had pleasant memories of that hike.

We did part of the Fairyland Loop Trail as we were leaving.  It was neat also and not crowded at all.

As we headed down Hwy 12, we stopped at Mossy Cave (still in the park) to see a neat waterfall and can you guess - a mossy cave.  Then we were off on the Scenic Hwy 12 to pass through national monuments on the way to Capitol Reef NP.

Bryce Canyon is a top tier park in my opinion but can be done (by seniors) in two full days although we only spent 24 hours there.  The way we did it  translates to 8 hours in one day and 8 hours the next!!!



 

Having said that the sunrise was not as spectacular as I expected at Bryce Canyon, I found this photo taken from Bryce Point as the sunlight hit deeper in the amphitheater.

Absolutely beautiful, Bill!  The sunrise shot that is.  Regarding us scampering up , I actually got very concerned because of my pushing for us to get to the car before the storm hit because Polly was having a tougher time than I coming up the switchbacks, next time we'll just be sure to be better prepared for hiking and have rain gear with us on any hike and not worry if the rains come down.

Since you seemed to enjoy the sunrise photo at Bryce Point, I found this picture which you probably will not see elsewhere.  As we waited to see the sunlight play with the hoodoos, we noticed to the west several mesas that were being illuminated first.  So this picture was taken about 5 minutes before amphitheater show.

That is a pretty shot also!  It reminded me of an article I had read regarding photography in the Grand Teton NP long ago.  The article stated that photographers had photographed every landscape possible at GTNP but there was always another photo to be had because of different lighting conditions.  And think about it, sunrise, sunset, full sun, cloudy, raining, winter, summer, fall, spring, storming, etc.

They say Ansel Adams, a great black & white photographer, would see a scene and make notes to come back at a certain time of year to catch the lighting he wanted.  Enjoying the parks and the West as you do, I'll bet you've seen some of his works as the one of aspens, Moonrise over ????, can't remember the name of the little mexican village with the cemetery in the foreground,

Gotta run!  Thanks for sharing these photos!

This one??

www.afterimagegallery.com/featureadams.htm

Well, I couldn't get it to show the pic but that's the one.  Have you seen the one of the Aspens?

Are you saying that you clicked on the link in my message with no results?  It is the first time I have tried to use that particular feature on this website.  I looked up Aspen by AA - years ago I looked at his works but remember very little.

For the aspen, I uploaded the pic instead of linking to it.

:) Hey, I'm still runing ME (Millenium Edition) on my desktop.  And, I just saw last night where MS is terminating support for XP soon.

On the Moonrise post I was able to open the link but the photo did not open, or it's possible it was just slower than my patience.  Had no trouble viewing Aspens, thanks for sending it.  Color is wonderful but there is still something about B&W when done well.  Wow, I had not seen such prices before.

Of course, he was probably using a large format camera, on a tripod, plus his expertise and experience, all put together can produce no less than outstanding photographs.

How the dickens do you keep up with this website and the one for Larry?   Do you sleep?   Like I said, looks like you and Johnny and I laid a bunch of words down in the last few weeks.  Hope someone besides us enjoys the posts.

Bill