Fairyland

Thursday June 30, 2011
Bryce Canyon National Park
North Campground Site 45

Today’s high was predicted
to be 74 which sounded just perfect
for doing the longest day hike
listed in the hike information we have.
Fairyland Loop.  8 miles total.
Great name isn’t it!!
And so appropriate
just wait until you see.

So we packed our lunches and snacks
filled up the camelbacks
and set off to walk the rim trail
from the campground to the trail head.

Saw these happy evening primroses on the way
Hoodoos to the left
They are everywhere   :-)

Got to the trail head.  What a VIEW!
Not only was the temperature perfect
but look at that blue sky and puffy clouds.

 

Undaunted by the signs
we started off down the trail

and around the bend
Whoa!
What a landscape!!

Every step you take

 

Legend People

Amazing vistas

Castles in the sky

The colors are just spectacular
Hope you can see them
Our trail is the flat white spot
about 2/3rds of the way down on the right
going from right to left.
It took us right down into this beauty.

This trail turned out to have many
more of the great interesting
Bristlecone Pine trees than
the namesake trail.

These trees have definite personalities
and unusual shapes.  In this picture
the three right most trees are Bristlecones
with their long hanging bristles.
Notice our white trail.

Notice the hole in the bottom of the “wall”

I love the subtle colors of these rocks

But this one is my favorite Bristlecones.
His bristle is nearly his entire trunk.

How about that top

David is hiking toward what they call
the China Wall

This might give some sense of how huge they are

Can’t get over the colors in these rocks

Beautiful wildflowers along the way as well

 

Down to the bottom across the wash

where we met up with this Stellar's Jay

On to Tower Bridge
And we’re only two miles into this 8 mile hike

If you go all the way down then you have to
climb back up but there isn’t a better
place to do it

They call this boat mesa

Looks like this boat has a hole in it
smoke stacks on the top?

If the Legend people were
yelling at David he didn’t hear them

Sometimes you just have to ponder a bit.
Little me under the tree with the wonders
of Earth to behold.

Including Bristlecone pines
makes me want to dance along

After climbing

when you get to the top the reward is
amazing vistas

In every direction

And now, time for lunch

Here’s my lunch view from under the tree

Out of Campbell Canyon and into
Fairyland Canyon

Where the walls are literally lined with Hoodoos.

I see the rook, where is the knight?

Pink…I’m walking on a pink trail.
Fairyland is right!

Climbing UP

UP

through the Big
Yellow and Orange Rock Candy Mountain.

Getting up high enough now to start looking
DOWN on things again

Up on top, we’ll walk the rim trail back
to our Campsite.  It’s about 2.7 miles to
the Sunrise Point where we set out
and then another half mile or so to Winnona.

The Rim Trail goes from Fairyland Point where we
are now to Bryce Point where we were yesterday.
So we will have walked the whole thing,
in two halves, once we get back to Winnona.

Fabulous views from up here on this
beautiful blue sky puffy white cloud day

We walked through what
we came to call the
Western Juniper Sculpture Garden.
David loves these.

This Stellar's Jay who followed us for probably 1/4 of
a mile hoping, I guess, that if he kept posing
eventually we’d give him some treat.
You don't suppose he followed us all the way up
here from the bottom do you?  :-)
Sorry buddy,  You have to make it on your own.
But you sure are cute!

and funny

Looks like I’m not the only one
who has a bad hair day
in the wind.

There were grassy meadows on this section of the rim.

HooDoos everywhere,
even on the rim

We had walked a piece of the rim
closest to the campground the
day we arrived in Bryce.
So we knew when we reached this familiar landmark
that we were  near home.

And so, 8 miles later, we went back
down into the campground

back to Winnona

and David says
”back for a cold one”

Bryce is batting 1000
on their hikes!!
Don’t miss this one!