Day 6 - Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef National Park

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Weather: Sunny, mid-80s

Steps: Shaun - 15,210, Shannon - 13,398

Before leaving Bryce, we decided to do one big hike, which was the Navajo/Queen’s Garden loop trail. On the way back into the park, we encountered some prairie dogs and another hawk, this one possibly a Cooper’s hawk.

The Navajo/Queen’s Garden Loop was 3.6 miles and took us down into the canyon and then back up, through steep switchbacks, a forest, a garden of hoodoos, arches, and more, all this, while at some of the highest elevations of the trip, between 8,000 and 9,000 feet. It was hard, and took awhile, with much stopping to rest, but we made it!



Here are a bunch of photos taken along our trek:

We at lunch at the Lodge, where we had parked, and then went on our way, though with several detours before arriving in Torrey, near Capitol Reef. First we traveled to Kodachrome State Park, a nice little park, with beautiful colorful rock formations. While there, we saw a Western Kingbird.

 

Then we drove into Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to see the Grosvenor Arch. It required fancy driving on Shaun’s part because the road was unpaved and pretty rough, but we made it and were the only ones there. We were able to walk right up to the base of the arch, which was pretty epic. Ravens were nesting under the arch, but they were the only signs of life in the area.

We drove back the way we came on the unpaved road until we got to the highway that would take us to Torrey. Along the way, we stopped for a dinner of burgers at a slow, but good restaurant in Escalante and briefly visited the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. The visitors center was closed and we didn’t feel like hiking up to where the actual forest was, but we were able to read about the petrified wood and see some examples without too much effort.

From there, it was still an hour and a half drive to Torrey and it was heading toward dark, the best time to see varmints. And boy, did we see varmints! First, a fox ran across the road in front of us. Then Shan saw a skunk and a rabbit in quick succession. After that, out of nowhere, there was a huge elk standing on the side of the road without a care in the world. She was beautiful and didn’t care a whit about us. We ended up seeing other elk and mule deer along the way, but this one was spectacular. No pictures, unfortunately :-(

We initially passed our lodging, but eventually we found it and checked in (i.e. had to knock on the front door of the owner’s house at 10:15 pm to get the key to our cabin). It was late, and we were exhausted, so we did the bare minimum to unpack and collapsed for the night.