I went to Bryce Canyon with my good friend, Christopher, to go on my obligatory summer backpacking trip. I think that backcountry backpacking is my favorite thing in the world. We left Sandy at 4AM to ensure that we caught the park shuttle to the other end of the park, to Rainbow Point. The plan was to take the ‘Under the Rim trail.’ This is a one-way 23-mile trail that extends through the entire park, almost. The problem with backpacking here is water; there are only two reliable water sources, that is the two places we camped. The first day was rather simple; from where we were dropped off, at Rainbow Point, we only had to go 4 miles to our campsite (Iron Spring). Shortly after we got there it started to rain. Considering that we were in the desert, it was a pretty healthy rain but short lived. There was a reliable water source, Iron Spring, but it had lots of minerals and silt in it the clogged the filter rather quickly. We hiked up close to the top of the ‘rim’ where there were some pretty neat rock formations. We then went down to where we heard water flowing and followed it up to find what I’m sure was the head of Iron Spring. Unfortunately fires are not permitted in the park so when night came we didn’t spend too much time talking, we went to bed rather quickly as it got fairly cold. A strange thing that I will not forget is the quiet that accompanied the night at Iron Spring. There was no wind, no crickets, no noise at all; it was kind of eerie.
The second day was a lot more grueling than either of us had expected. We had to go 13 miles to our next campsite. We had thought, ‘yeah, we can do 13 miles, no problem.’ It was almost as if we had failed to figure in the fact that we had 35 LBS on our backs. We started around 10:30 AM and didn’t get to camp until 7:30 PM. This stretch of the trail had no water to speak of. We had filled all our water at Iron Spring, it turned out that that amount was barely enough to carry us through the 13 mile trek. We were dead when we finally made it to the second campsite, Yellow Creek. There was another group at this site from Belgium. Luckily the ‘creek’ was right next to camp. After we filled our water bottles, we cooked dinner, setup camp, and went to bed. It was a very grueling day and we were exhausted!
The next day we took it easy and stayed around camp to allow our bodies to recover. We spent time talking, diverting the creek, damning the creek, bathing, etc. At one point we decided to follow the creek upstream. Well, the bugs up river had another idea. We got to one point where then coordinated an attack on us, it was horrible! So we quickly got away from the creek and made our way back to camp. The next day we packed up camp and walked the last six miles to Bryce Point. This was a very different portion of the trail. We went through a desolate sagebrush field, thick scrub oak, and finally a steep accent to Bryce Point. The accent was neat as we finally got to see those strange hoodoo formations that Bryce Canyon is famous for. We made it back, took the shuttle to the car, and drove back to Sandy.
All and all, it was a great backpacking trip. This was very different from the backpacking trips that I usually take as it was in the desert. Luckily it was the high desert so it never got too hot. Christopher and I had a great time together; it was just the two of us. I’ll have to find a new partner for next year as Christopher will be on his mission.
View from Rainbow Point, the start. We followed those cliffs that you see in the distance.
Starting Down the trail. (me)
Starting Down the trail. (Topher)
Pink cliffs, no pink ladies though :(
A cool chasm!
On the trail.
Starting to get in the hoodoos on the last trail.
Getting to the end of the trail. (me)
Getting to the end of the trail. (Topher)
Getting to the end of the trail. (random hoodoos)
