Another Summer, Another Epic road trip in the books.
After a great vacation last year, we decided we could do another 10 day, drive across the country cramming in a as much as we could. Spend all day doing stuff, then load into the truck and drive another 4-6 hours... why not!!! I think I spent the entire vacation on almost no sleep and all coffee. I was dehydrated the whole trip since bathrooms were sparse while driving and hiking. Almost no water just coffee!!
After losing track of time it's time to get back and finish posting about this vacation. I can't believe its been 20 days since my last update. I know I avoid these since they take so much time to put together, but I need to finish this off in the next few weeks!!!. This will be day 6 of the 10-day trip and it started to feel like time was running out. While we still had plenty of stuff planned you could fell the end starting to creep in. I need to vacation more like 
- Pre Drive Friday Night to Altoona IA
- Day 1 Drive to Denver Co - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
- Day 3 Part 1 Drive to MOAB, Hike Corona Arch!!
- Day 3 Continued - Jet Boat Tour and Sunset at Dead Horse State Park
- Day 4 - Sunrise at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Part 1
- Day 5 - Star Gazing at Arches National Park then an afternoon at Capital Reef National Park
- Day 6 - Day 5 Sunset and Day 6 Sunrise at Bryce Canyon National Park
Getting to Bryce Canyon after the long day of at Capital Reef
We were lucky enough to get finished with Capital Reef in time to go and see the sun set at Bryce Canyon. While initially we had planned to roll into town much later, the road construction that block the parking for the 3-4 hour hike we had planned allowed us to modify our plans.
We took the hour two drive to Bryce Cannyon, grabbed some dinner ( if we can call it that) at a strange local "restaurant". This place was more like fast food joint you see at amusement parks, sports arenas, etc. It was set up the same with the options to order, like hot dog baskets, corn dogs, burgers, etc. All the typical stuff you see, but it was indoors, and its stand alone building. My guess is they are only open during the heavy travel season, and honestly the town outside of Bryce is not very big, but caters to the massive influx of people during peak travel season.
After getting some dinner we headed off into the park to see if we could catch the sunset...
Sun Set at Bryce Canyon -
The sunset was great because it really added some great color to the landscape. You could notice it as the sun went down the color drained from the rocks as well and became much more bland or whitewashed. It will say if only ever been to Bryce canyon in the summer, and I think it would be something really pretty to see in the winter snow covered.
Looking at the canyon at sunset
Have to look the wrong way to see the sunset!!
We had to turn around and look away from the hoodoos and take a look at the parking lot and the road behind to actually see the sunset. Well not the best view, who's still a decent shot of the sunset.
Just a touch of pink
We are hoping for a bit more of that full red and blazing orange, but we got just a tinge of color this evening.
Panoramic fail
After the Sun Went down the colors changed
This is where I felt things really started to get bland or whitewashed. The colors just really didn't pop nearly as well as they did when the sun was still up.
Back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep
We went back to the hotel to grab a few hours of sleep, before getting up and..... you guessed it watching the sunrise over Bryce Canyon! My kids were super excited to get another 6ish hours of sleep again!!!
My oldest is complaining that vacations are supposed to be spent sleeping in, laying by the pool, and eating great meals. Poor boy was born into the wrong family for that type of vacation. Can't count the number of times we told him he can that when he is paying for it... suck it up, vacations are not supposed to be relaxing, you only remember the challenging ones!!!
Sun Rise Time!!!!
Lucky for me to call coffee and hotel was ready earlier than indicated by the sign. I was able to double fist cups on my way out the door and try to slug them in the car before we got there. Too small cups of hotel coffee aren't really enough to keep me going, but it was the best I could do and the best I was going to have for most of the day. Can't complain.
We were not alone of course to watch the sunrise. In fact there were plenty of people there to do it. We got when it was still dark so we could catch the full process. I set up my gopro (failure again) and used my phone. My GoPro basically got bleached out since the sunrise came right into the lends. My phone was doing better and adjusting so these are all I have... no time lapse like I had hoped.
Pre Dawn
I love the pre-dawn watching the colors change and go from dark to blue and orange and you start to get the prettiest colors for just a little while before the sun really starts to come up.
Colors Finally Coming
Sun Rise!!!
Everyone was waiting for this moment. Once it came up almost everybody started to either leave or just start down in the hiking trails. For some reason everyone had to wait for the Sun to clear the horizon for me to start.
Last Shot before we hit the trails!!
I love these shots because the shots right when we started I have some of the best contrast and shadows.
Now that the sun is up, its time to start hiking!!!
Best part about Bryce is that you can hike almost the entire park in about half a day if you push it. Most of the trails loop and circle back on each other. There are a few that get closed and are limited access to allow people the time to explore and enjoy the view. We did not want to wait for an hour to go through
Now you can see that most of the trails are all centered around the parking and roads. There are several trails that are much further back in the park and either require other entry points, or a super long hike, probably pushing another 10+ miles to add them on.
Our Route 7.1 miles in 3.5 hours
As you can see we hit up most of the trails. At least all the ones close to the parking lot and we did a very big loop. While we didn't get all of the trails we got most of the ones that we knew and wanted to get to without absolutely killing the kids. I think you can spend a full day hiking there and could probably push 25 to 30 miles if you wanted it actually do everything. I think my kids are a little young for that and I might be getting a little old for that. But I'll still pretty happy to have 7 miles and 3 1/2 hours and 1500 ft of elevation game. It was constant up and down.
I will try ot limit my photos to the best and leave the rest on my phone!!
Start of the Hike
When we started to hike it was some of the prettiest times of the day with the deep red color and the Long shadows casted by the sunrise totally worth it if you ever go.
I just love all the deep red color with the sun rise!
Wall Street
I don't know if this one is wall street, or if this was on a different path that has a very similar switchbacks on the way down. I didn't take good enough notes on the map and they're both relatively close.
Two Bridges
This one is pretty cool cuz you can actually see two really small land bridges. Well not significant like the one we saw the day before it was still cool see two of them in here.
From the bottom!!
The view from The bottom is shockingly different than expected. I don't remember seeing all those trees when I was at the top but they must have been hidden from my view somehow.
There are some trees
They are not sure why they grow like this, but they are really cool. I have never seen anything like this before!!
Crazy Tree
Twists like a ice cream cone on the way up!
I missed the reward
It wasnt until after we finished that my wife was reading this sign in my photo ( It was busy at the sign) and we noticed we should have tracked our stuff to get a free gift from the visitor center... Oh well.
Sweet Cut Outs to Hike through
We found two or three of these cutouts that were really cool. They were fun to walk through and kind of made you wonder who in the park department got the carving. That'd be a pretty sweet summer job honestly.
Queens Garden
It looks like the Queen tthey say!!!
You can't have to squint your eyes and use your imagination but you can see the outline similar to the photo if you really try hard.
Holy Crap that was a lot of photos....
I know I went overboard, and I only put fraction in a post. I will say after a while they all start to look the same, but when you're there everything looks breathtaking. Bryce canyon is one of the prettiest places I've been.
Ending it here... Next post will be... Akward...
Now that I'm trying to post on places I go and not necessarily days my posts are kind of bleeding together yet leaving me some awkward small posts. My next post might be very small but that's okay as long as I can move on to my next destination.
Vacation Stats
No updates to the stats since the count of the drive in the last post, and I'm not counting and driving this post.
Pre Drive Friday Night
Day 1 -Drive to Altoona
- 271 Miles
- 4 Hrs
Day 2 - Drive to Red Rocks & Hike - Drive to Look out Mountain and Eldorado Springs
- 694 Miles Red Rocks
- 10 Hours to Red Rocks
- 65 Miles Round Trip
- 2 Hours Round Trip
Day 3 Drive to MOAB - Hike, Jet Boat Tour and Dead Horse State Park
- 342 Miles
- 5.5 Hours
- Corona Arch, Pinto and Bow Tie Arch
- Jet Boat Tour
- Dead Horse State Park
Arches National Park
- Sunrise at Delicate Arch
- Sand Dune and Broken Arch Trail, Balanced Rock, Windows Trials, Double Arch
- Mesa Arch
- Sunset at Whale Rock
- Driving 80 Miles, 1H 50M
Day 5 Sunrise at Arches, Drive to Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon
- Drive to Capital Reef 156 Miles 2hrs 45m
- Hickman Land Bridge
- Petroglyphs Panels
- Dixie National Forest
- Drive to Bryce Canyon 107 Miles - 2 Hrs
- Sunset at Bryce Canyon
Day 5 Sunset and Day 6 Sunrise at Bryce Canyon
- Sunrise at Bryce
- 7 Mile Hike on most of the trails.
- Load up and drive again... (See next post)
Vacation Running Stats
Are running stats or getting up there, with a drive time of at least 28 hours and at least is 1700 miles excluding all the day driving to trailheads and activities and back and forth to be a pretty massive trip so far. It's a good thing my Chevy Silverado is so good on gas at an average of 17.2 miles to the gallon.
Here is the overall view of the drive excluding many of the small excusions
Tracked Totals including excursions
Total Miles - 1715
Total Time Driving - 28 hrs
Summary
So far I've been loving this trip that day five I'm getting a little anxious as I know we're halfway through but I'm looking forward to the next day in Bryce canyon and then on to a few more really cool places. I wish I would have tracked how many gallons I put in the truck, but I forgot on the first day of driving to track that. I did run a total trip odometer to give me a rough idea of how many miles I had even though I started it late on the first day. I'll work on getting the next post out on the next cool location that we visited in utah.