Bryce Canyon National Park (/braɪs/)

is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller, and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400 to 2,700 m).

Once done with my loop around the Great Salt Lake (basically cruising from Salt Lake City into nomansland) it was time to head back to my route connecting the National parks and returning to the higher elevations.

I had warmed up a little in the warmer climate and even though it was by no means hot, feeling the sun on the skin again was a great and needed change. Somehow I expected it to stay like this and I might even be able to throw on some shorts around midday but I couldn’t have been more wrong. While the daytime temperatures in Zion were still acceptable, Bryce turned out to be absolutely freezing. I spent my first night on some BLM land just outside Zion but it was just too cold. There were some motels on the side of the National park, it was off-season so Booking.com was handing out deals. I made sure to pick the sketchiest one for my two nights. Hotel Zion, horrible (I don’t remember why exactly, but I stumbled across a 2,6 rating I gave afterwards on booking, which I normally don’t do) It still was 50$ for a night. They were pricey for my standards but the level of comfort was OK, spacious rooms which, most important, always came with a desk.

Bryce turned out to be absolutely freezing, it was a lot higher elevated than Zion and the wintertime made for freezing temperatures anyhow. I switched hotels after staying in Zion to something of the same calibre, but due to the cold it was absolutely necessary, sleeping in the car would’ve been horrible. I stayed there for a couple of days and made sure I get to the park before sunrise. It was always very comfortable to get back to the warm room rather than staying in the car the whole day. National Parks always had to be figured out in a way to at least take half decent photos. It was interesting, when I got to a place I knew nothing and once I left I had a pretty clear picture of where to go and what to shoot. Bryce was great for sunrise, it came up beautifully over the whole valley of the park as the ridge with the best viewpoints was located in the west. On the other hand sunset was hard to catch, it wouldn’t cast any light into the valley of the park as it was blocked by the ridge. I remember severe finger pains when hiking around the park in the early hours, to a point where it became unbearable. Smoking and bad blood circulation didn’t help either, I had to keep my fingers moving all the time to keep them warm. I picked up a few single gloves other travellers had lost which solved the problem to a certain extend but staying out there for hours, waiting for the sun to rise high enough to be at least a little warm took its toll. I am not sure but I think the time around sunrise is the coldest of the day, as the atmosphere had the whole night to cool down and is desperately waiting to be warmed up by that fireball we all love so much. The park wasn’t that big and easy to explore. I reached a good portion of the viewpoints by car and did a few of the hikes through the valley.

Zion National park itself turned out to be a nice surprise. It consisted mainly of a river flowing through a canyon with steep walls on either side, but blocking the early and late sunlight, making it a bit hard to shoot.

There wasn’t any sunlight for sunrise (at least where I tried to find it) so I left to the library for work. It was located pretty much inside the park nestled between the red rocky mountains that dominated the area and again, I had another great work experience in one of the most beautiful libraries so far. Sadly the afternoon skies turned into the chemical kind, so I just kept working until I could check into the hotel and keep working from there. A lot of work sometimes meant being able to stay in a hotel, but at the same time not being able to leave it as much as I would want, but when I managed to get up for sunrise and then leave again for sunset it was a perfect combination. I did the Angels Landing hike the following day for sunset and it turned out to be quite epic. After the path wound up in serpentines nestled on the side of the mountain for a while, it turned outwards in direction of the canyon and took me on a very skinny ridge. At first I thought it may be the wrong way, it seemed pretty crazy even for me. There were no fences, security or anything like it, just a few metal chains for people to hold on to. The hike itself wasn’t that far, but considering elevation gain and the danger of the cliffs it was still quite demanding. A few people did give up and turned around, it got quite skinny and there was a chance to fall off the cliffs, but to my surprise a lot of the average chubby Americans made it up there. Amazing views off the steep ridge into the canyon on the narrow side and I got the last bit of sunset towards the wider part of the canyon. I made it up there as fast as I could but missed the sun lighting most parts of the canyon. It sank behind the mountain pretty quick and only left me with a bit of sunlight and blue hour. I would’ve loved to stay up there but the steep way down worried me and there was no way I wanted to go back down in the dark.