Utah, Glendale - Wednesday, May 4, 2016 - Bryce Canyon National Park

When we headed out this morning for Bryce Canyon we were expecting the weather to be like it was yesterday – cool in the morning and warming up nicely in the afternoon.  We were wrong, we went about 40 miles north and the temperature was at least 20 degrees cooler and it stayed that way all day with very strong winds. 

When we turned off of Hwy 89 onto Hwy 12 we went through part of the Red Canyon area.

There is a great bike trail running through this area.

Hwy 12 runs through two tunnels just past the Red Canyon area.  It appears they would accommodate a large RV but they aren’t marked.

Yesterday at Zion National Park we spent the day looking up.  Today we spent the day looking down – 1000 feet down.  This was our first view of Bryce from the Bryce Point area.

We decided not to hike up the steep incline to the top of Bryce Point which is  8300 feet above sea level.

The sun was so bright some of the vivid colors of the hoodoos didn’t come through in the pictures.

Note the snow on top of the mountains in the background.  I’m not sure what this mountain range is – you are supposed to be able to see about 150 miles from up here on the rim of the canyon.

More views looking down:

These views are from the Inspiration Point area.

We decided to hike along the Rim Trail which is 1.7 miles total.

The trail is packed limestone running along the rim of the canyon.

More scenery pictures (I know it’s a lot, I couldn’t decide which ones I liked best).

This bench along the trail made a nice spot to stop for a snack.

Sunset Point at 8,000 feet gives you a great view of a hoodoo named Thor’s Hammer (the tall one in the middle).

More views at Sunset Point.

The Lodge at Bryce was finished in 1927 and is still a beautiful structure.

This is the view from the very comfortable chairs on the lodge porch.

Inside was a huge fireplace and several log chandeliers.  We ate lunch in the restaurant – the Cobb salads were delicious

I asked Greg to stop at a turnout before the tunnel so I could get a good picture since I wasn’t sure I got a good one when we were riding through it.  It turned out to be a standoff with this car on the other side.  I didn’t want them in our picture and they didn’t want us in their picture.