On the Road Summer 2021 Days 34-36 Bryce Canyon

Days 34-36 Bryce Canyon

I invite you to read the Legend of the Hoodoos written in an earlier year when I worked as the concierge at Bryce Canyon. Just put "hoodoo" in the Search bar. Bryce Canyon is a lovely and magical place and I was looking forward to visiting again.

I was camping this trip and found a pleasant campsite in the first come first serve campground without much difficulty. Though I did time it to arrive around the time the first campers would be leaving. The National Park lodge was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and built with funding from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1925. The architecture is very cool. Make sure that you note the shingles on the roofs of the original buildings and those built to resemble them as they are placed to present an optical illusion that they are wavy. The lodge is stone and log with some pretty impressive beams, as well as two fireplaces, one in the main sanctum of the lodge and the other in its auditorium where interesting Ranger programs are presented regularly, or were, pre-COVID. The lodge offers a few rooms upstairs. I hope to stay in one of the original “deluxe cabins” next time, or if they are not available one of the two nearby motels, whose rooms are also designed in the rustic cowpoke style. If you are making reservations, go through the National Park Service website, which will direct you to the concessionaire operating lodging there.  

There are a number of options outside the park with deceptively similar names but offering nowhere near the experience. The Ruby Syrett family knew a good opportunity when they saw it and began running a tourist stop at the canyon’s edge in 1915. The family has managed to hang on to all of the land surrounding the entrance to the park and even recently successfully incorporated it into a City, Bryce Canyon City. Basically, they have a monopoly as you head into the park. This is not to say that there aren’t other desirable options outside the park, but do your homework. The small nearby town of Tropic has some interesting offerings. Bryce does not usually get as crowded as some of the other parks on its circuit, hear Zion, which can be an absolute zoo, but if you do find yourself unable to find accommodations nearby you might consider Kodachrome Basin State Park if you are camping, or Panguitch Lake. Panguitch Lake is close to an hour away, but you could add Cedar Breaks on to your itinerary. Or continue on to Utah Highway 12 east toward Capitol Reef and see if anything is available en route. There is not much commerce for sure, but the road is one of the loveliest I’ve ever driven. I’ve taken it again and again. It is especially magical in early October when the quaking aspen turn gold. There is a storytelling app, Story Road Utah you can listen to along the way if you can get reception. I’d download it in advance though as reception is probably pretty spotty. There’s a sweet little market in Escalante, Escalante Mercantile and Natural Grocery where you can pick up organic produce and gourmet selections, many fresh and homemade for a delightful picnic en route or even at Capitol Reef if you can wait.  If you enjoy fine coffee, keep your eyes open for Kiva Coffeehouse, fourteen miles outside of Escalante on Highway 12.

Bryce Canyon is like a second home to me, and one of my dearest friends is there, so it was as good a place as any to get the call from my brother telling me that it was time to call my elderly mother. And say goodbye.