Day 4: Jane’s Bday celebrated in the desert

November 9th, 2005

It is Jane’s bday today, happy bday! It is very unique to celebrate someone’s Birthday in a desert, after all it is a good change from always celebrating b-day at home. Too bad that we still cannot get any cellphone signals in the region, I guess that is the purpose of the vacation – no phone calls, no emails, no Internet.

If you get time to make the grand circle driving tour, make sure you don’t miss Utah state highway 12 from Captial Reef N.P to Bryce N.P. The scenic drive is simply amazing. Part of the drive is on the ridge of mountain, where both sides of the road are cliffs. Driving in night is highly discouraged, it is not only unsafe, but also you will miss the magnificent view next to you. The color of plants in the fall season makes the canyons looks like postcard, we have to make multiple stops and the 100 mile drive ended up taking us 4 hours.

The best view of the Bryce national park is from Bryce Point, one of 13 view points of the park. The view reminds me of the view of terra-cotta soldiers site from China. If you plan to spend less than 3 hours in the park, make sure most of time is spent here. When you get to the vista point, you can easily feel your widest lens is still not wide enough to hold everything. You are surrounded by the Hoodoos in 360 degrees. and you are also intimidated by the cliffs

There are two other viewpoints worth of mentioning if you plan to stay some extended hours in the park: Sunset point and Sunrise point. Sunset point is the starting point of the most popular hiking trail: Navajo loop, a 1.3 mile moderate strenuous walk climbs up and down a hill with an elevation change of 500 feet. The scene of the “Wall Street” along the trail is totally different than what you would think from the viewpoint. The rock looks so tall that you can barely see the sky, and you’d think any rock can collapse anytime when you see the cracks of the rock, rest assured you are safe, usually the rock fell in the dark when temperature changes dramatically. Make sure walk slowly when you climb up in the 2nd half of the loop, it can be very tiring and most importantly, you are risk missing the view of the most photographed spot in the park: The Hammer of Theo, it appears in almost 2/3 of all postcards of the park (there are photos of it from almost every possible angle on the Internet). So even if you are taking the full hiking trail, spend some time to descend from Sunset point, take the left trail, which is very close to the Hammer.

Night stay at Best Western Ruby’s Inn is pretty decent, it has wirless internet only the in the lobby. The front desk said it will be availble to guest rooms (separate building) by next spring.

Entry Filed under: Travel