The Most Beautiful Fairyland I Ever Hiked At, in Bryce Canyon National Park

 

 

Date: April 4, 2021

Place: Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Coordinates: 37.649332, -112.147240

Length: 8.8 miles

Level: strenuous

 

 

Still working on catching up with the pandemic time when I hiked plenty but wrote little, I am now returning to the spring break of 2021. School was all on online but it was still easier to travel when we didn't worry about connection and about the chikas being present in class. In short, we used the week long break to travel to Utah, and our first stop was at Bryce Canyon National Park. We've been in Bryce Canyon years ago, when the elder chika was but 1 year old. It was during winter and there was snow and ice everywhere. It was gorgeous, but we didn't do any hikes at the time due to the icy conditions. On our 2021 visit we more than compensated for that.

Our first hike was in the northern part of the park. We parked at the Fairyland Point ton the north end of the Rim Trail. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 The view from Fairyland Point was exquisite. Not that it was any surprise - the view from any point along the Rim was. We took some time to breathe the sights in. 

My family birders were looking for the birds right from the beginning. There, on The Rim,  was a lovely pair of mountain bluebirds. 

Western Bluebird, female

 

Pappa Quail and the elder chika took the time to photograph the two bluebirds. It was spring time, but this pair didn't seem all too engaged in springtime activities. 

Western Bluebird, male

 

Bryce Canyon isn't a true canyon but more like an amphitheater formed by the erosion of the rock layers, leaving behind the stunning rock formation known as 'hoodoos'.  A mild-sloped trail stretched down from Fairyland Point on The Rim and on that trail we started descending into the 'Canyon'. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

Hoodoos are, rock pillars, islands left behind when the  contiguous rock layers had eroded around and between them. They used to be part of that contiguous rock, and do erode over time as well. 

Hiking in Bryce Canyon is like watching a single frame of a very long movie. It is witnessing a split second of a slow geological process that took millions of years and is still going on. 

Each generation of people that witnessed Bryce Canyon have seen a somewhat different Bryce Canyon than the next generation, but the over all change is so slow that for all we know, the place has had the same look for as long as people have witnessed it. 

That over all look is so majestic and impressive that folklore stories were spun around and about it, and eventually it was protected as a National Park. 

We descended down Fairyland Trail at a pretty good pace. I didn't see any wildflowers to slow me down and at some point I managed to manage my urge to photograph each and every individual hoodoo I saw. 

We didn't see too many birds either, but when we did see or hear them, Pappa Quail and the elder chika would stop to take photos. 

Clark's Nutcracker

I did note that there were quite a lot of trees along the trail, especially on the slopes of ravines and creeks. Nearly all of these trees were conifers, most of them pines of several species.  

Colorado Pinyon, Pinus edulis

Pines are the hardiest of trees, and they thrive under extreme conditions where other trees do not. Bryce Canyon is a high desert area, and although not with the most extreme conditions found in Utah, it is still no place for more delicate woods. In the lower valleys and depressions of the park's land there were healthy pine groves . 

Between the pines were also junipers but the junipers were no trees, just bushy shrubs. The junipers we saw there were health and lush, and laden with berries. 

Eventually we were low enough in the canyon to look at the hoodoos from bottom to top. The mass of hoodoos I was looking at when I took the photo below were still being curved from the massive rock layers of The Rim. 

We were there early in April. The winter of 2021 in California was very very dry. Here however, things seemed to be better in terms of precipitation. The trees looked green and healthy, and there was quite a lot of snow still, suck to the more shaded slopes of the canyon. 

The moon was up, nice and bright even in daylight. To my request, Pappa Quail took an enlarged image of the moon with his birding camera. 

Moon

We continued descending down the mildly sloped Fairyland Loop Trail. The day, which started chilly enough for us to wear our jacket, was warming up now. Ahead of us was a pyramid of rock with hoodoos separating off at three distinct layers. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

Just like people, each hoodoo is distinct and unique, in both size and shape. Many of them even resemble human caricatures in a way. It is human nature to imagine and be inspired by shapes in nature. According to local native folklore, the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon are ancient beings that were petrified by the gods. 

Hoodoos

I've seen hoodoos in other places, such as at the Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon however, are the most beautiful that I've seen anywhere. The color of the rocks they're made of is certainly a major contributor to their beauty. The light play in the rocks adds much too.

The reddish rocks were set against the perfect backdrop of an almost clear blue sky. The few light feather clouds added their own angelic beauty to the over all scenery. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

The taller hoodoos seemed to be more in the higher regions of the park. Deeper down the canyon the hoodoos were shorter, more eroded. They seemed also to be more individual hoodoos, separated from the rock mass. 

I didn't see any wildflowers along the trail. It was either too early in the season, or otherwise the winter wasn't as good as I first thought. In lieu of wildflowers, I was photographing the hoodoos in abundance. They were all beautiful to me. 

Hoodoos

Not all the view was of hoodoos. In parts of the park the erosion was a bit too fast to allow many distinct hoodoos to form. It was nevertheless and impressive place to see. 

The hoodoos were formed by water erosion. Not merely by the running water that cut creases and ruts down the cliff face but also through frequent cycles of freeze-thaw during the major part of the year that helps break down and shape the rock spires. 

This erosion process sculpts the most unique and beautiful shapes in the stone. There is no better artist than Mother Nature herself. 

The trail meandered between the clusters of hoodoos as we made our way further downhill and deeper into the canyon. The chikas started making hungry sounds but we weren't ready to take a break just yet. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

The reddish color of the rocks comes from the oxidation of metal minerals in the soil, such as iron and manganese. 

The trail shifted its grade and for a while we were walking on a level path, and then even uphill for some distance. With the increasing effort and the warming up of the day, we quickly peeled off the jackets. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

On the now, south-facing slope the trees took more of a bonsai shape in many places. Some of these trees were also the size of a bonsai. 

Besides the bush-like looking trees there were also plenty of true bushes, such as manzanita. I didn't pay too much attention to the manzanitas I saw, but I did notice an interesting pattern of leaf damage on some of the bushes. I don't know what had caused it. 

Manzanita, Arctostaphylos sp.

The trail curved and once again we were descending, going down a mild slope towards a point called Tower Bridge, where we had planned to have a long break. The views were sweeping and vast. Ahead was an imposing table mountain, an island in the sky that remained after all the rock table around it had eroded.

Fairyland Loop Trail

The view from where we were also revealed how deep the canyon was, with layers upon layers of erosion leaving behind armies of hoodoos. 

Armies of hoodoos. That's another thing that is special to Bryce Canyon National Park. There are hoodoos in other places but Bryce Canyon had so many of them in one place. 

Hoodoos Army

Although each hoodoo is unique, many of them, especially in a cluster, are similar to one another in general lines. That makes the really unique hoodoos stand out even more. 

'The Sphinx' (not official name)

We continued descending downhill, moving down the trail right below a great brigade of hoodoos of multiple layers. 

Needing a break we stopped for a short one, sitting on the side of the trail. It wasn't a long break but it was enough to invigorate everybody. 

Fairyland Loop Trail

Here too were some interesting looking hoodoos. One that attracted my attention was a diamond shaped balanced rock hoodoo that stood by itself. 

Here I finally saw a few wildflowers, and celebrated a good few minutes that I dedicated to look at them and take photos. 

Least Ground Daisy, Townsendia minima

As I was paying close attention to the tiny desert flowers of the only species I saw blooming I was also looking closer at the colorful rocks. These rocks were the same as those that made the hoodoos. 

Around another curve of the trail we came in view of the rock formation named the Tower Bridge. There was a spur trail leading down to it and we turned onto that trail. 

The Tower Bridge isn't like a regular hoodoo but a thin wall of rock with two spires and two holes and an over all look of a steamboat. We got to the bottom of the trail and sat down amongst other hikers who found this lovely flat and shaded spot below the rock formation a good place for a break. 

Tower Bridge

We rested and ate, and watched the little chickadees hop between the branches and twigs, looking for their own lunch. 

Mountain Chickadee

A Steller's jay appeared also, showing great interest in the people. It got close enough for the elder chika to get a good close up photo. 

Steller's Jay

After our break we went back up to the loop trail and continued our hike, now moving westward, and on a continuous ascend towards the Rim. 

Once again we were going between and below the Fairyland hoodoos, often in very artistically formed in clusters. 

The clusters of hoodoos reminded me of teenager cliques in the schoolyard during break time. I tried playing with the chikas the hoodoo imagination game but they weren't very cooperative about it. 

Tower Bridge was at about the half way point of the hike, meaning we had over 4 miles of hiking still, and much of it on the incline. The slope was mild and we took it at a good pace. 

Tower Bridge Trail

As often happens on our family hikes, I was at the rear. My pace was the least regular - I would pause to take photos, then rush ahead to catch up. 

The hoodoos fascinated me, but I also took much interest in the larger-scale formations, such as the walls of thinner rock protrusions. 

The trail took us right below some of those rock walls. It was quite apparent that had we come in some future geological time those walls would be eroded into a line of hoodoos. 

The higher valleys between the hoodoo walls and The Rim looked like a scene from another world. For us, it truly was another world.  

Up and up we went, getting closer to The Rim. The higher we were, the hoodoos were less defined, and the rock formations took different, somewhat less eroded shapes. This one in the photo below reminded me of a crown. 

Rock Crown

Small pinyon trees grew in small groves and stands between the rocks, thriving in the shadier nooks but not limited to them. Pinyons, like other pine species, are hardy trees. 

When we reached The Rim we still had a good two and a half miles to get back to Fairyland Point where we were parked. 

The Rim Trail provides excellent views into Bryce Canyon. It is the obvious trail that nearly evry visitor in Bryce Canyon hikes, at least in some segments. 

The sweeping views from The Rim also give the perspective of geological events of a much larger scale than the local erosion of rock into hoodoos. In the center of photo below there is a slanted table mountain, it's layers match those of the surrounding area but it was clearly pushed up or sunk lower on one side by a fault action, causing it to tilt. 

From The Rim we could also see beyond the erosion area that makes Bryce Canyon, into flat, wide valleys far below.  

The Rim Trail was fairly level throughout most of the way back, and in the segments where it separated from the edge of the canyon and cut through a loose pine forest, we made a quick progress. 

The Rim Trail

When the Rim Trail was at the edge of the Canyon, we would slow down again, and look at the hoodoos and the other rock formations that we could see.  

Wherever there were gaps in the big rock mass, we could see the beginning of the erosion work that was creating the hoodoos. On the morrow we would drop down a trail that was created through one of those massive rock gaps. 

Gate

In places the Rim Trail would drop a bit below the top rock layer, and we could see hoodoos left where that layer was mostly eroded already. 

Although not as frequent as the hoodoos and the walls, there were also rock windows and arch formations as well. Often the view framed inside those rock windows were no less beautiful and sometimes more, than the arch itself. 

Window Arch

The entire area of this part of Utah used to be submerged under water through many geological cycles, each leaving behind a characteristic layer of sedimentary rock. Eventually when the area that Utah is part of rose high, weathering and erosion started its work on carving the rocks and shaping the amazing  landscape of Bryce Canyon. The other parks in Utah are no less stunning in their beauty, but of them I'll post some other time. 

I could recognize some of the larger rock formations we have walked by on the trails below The Rim. From the higher view point I could appreciate better their magnitude and magnificence. 

The Wall

Even on the Rim Trail I lingered behind my family, taking the time to breathe in the vast views. Bryce Canyon has the upper layers of what is called, "The Grand Staircase" which is the magnificent geological layering that make up much of Utah and is visible in different stages of erosion throughout Utah's parks. 

The Rim Trail

Bryce Canyon National Park is a great place to start stepping down that Grand Staircase into the ancient past of the Earth. 

Hoodoos, top view

From the view point of the Rim Trail we also had a top view of the maze of passages presented in the areas of the younger (higher) hoodoos. On the morrow we would hike through one such maze in the southern part of the park.  

Hoodoo Maze

A bit further on the Rim Trail we were treated to other interesting looking hoodoos such as this trident-shaped three point spire in the photo below. 

Trident Hoodoo

 

On the far horizon on the northeast, barely detectable through the haze, was a large, voluminous peak that looked snow-capped. I wondered if that could be La Sal Mountain, or if that was too far. I am not sure. 

We quickened our pace through yet another segment of the Rim Trail that cut through the forest a bit away from the canyon's edge. The day had warmed up to hot and we were all sweaty and tired, ready to complete the hike. 

The Rim Trail

When we came upon a snow patch, remnant of winter that survived in the shade of the forest, the elder chika flung herself on it to cool herself off. 

We didn't take any other breaks on the rest of our way back. I took some final goodbye photos of the beautiful view from The Rim before following Pappa Quail and our chikas to the car. Tomorrow we'd still be in Bryce Canyon for another hike. 

We drove slowly through the park's road. There are prairie dog colonies in the higher areas of the park and signs warning drivers to drive slowly. Naturally, we got all excited seeing these signature rodents of the inner country. We don't have them in California. 

Prairie Dog

Eighteen years after our first and less than satisfactory visit at Bryce Canyon National Park we finally got the full appreciation of this place on our second visit, and this day's hike was only half of it. On the morrow we'd come back to have some more of this wonderful treat.