Bryce Canyon

We were all so excited to camping at Bryce.  I think we all love to camp.  I didn't know much about Bryce other than its popular and pretty. We got there around noon, and lucky we did.  Jayden had helped do some research and decided we should try to stay in the Sunset Campground. But that was full, so we headed to the North Campground.  We found quite a few spots there, though most were small ones, close to other camping spots. With 6 rambunctious kids, I was nervous about bothering those around us. We spotted this campground after our first loop as we were headed to take one of the small ones.  It was perfect!  Right by the bathrooms (you can see the green roof to the right of our tent), and really no neighbors, except behind us.  Well, really lots of neighbors all around, but not RIGHT next to us.  There was even enough room to throw a ball around. We also were withing walking distance of the visitors center, which  we checked out once we got all set up.  (For future reference, our campsite was on loop C, site 57.)

Across the road from us was a small campsite, and beyond that we could see people walking along a trail.  Dylan, Austin, and Lauren came with me to explore. We went up there, and holy cow, what a view! We were right on the rim of Bryce Canyon. (We learned about Bryce Canyon and what the rim was from our little trip to the Visitor's Center earlier in the day.)  It was sunset, too, so it was really pretty.  I made the kids stay close to me and a ways from the edge because it sure made me nervous! But it was really cool to be camping right there.

We took Ethan and Ashlyn to see the view in the morning and showed them the amazing view!

In doing our research of what to do, and talking with people, we knew we wanted to hike Queen's Garden, and had heard a lot of good things about Navajo Loop, but we also heard that maybe Navajo Loop might be too hard for our kids. If we wanted to, it was possible to go down the rim on one of those trails, and then connect to the other and come out that other one.  But because we weren't sure of what to expect, our plan was to just do Queen's Garden, and back up the same way.  We hiked along the rim to get to the Queen's Garden trail.

 

Heading down we ran into my cousin Eric, his wife Sherry, and their kids.  It was so funny to run into them at such a random place! Later in the week we ran into his brother Brian and his family.  The strange thing was they hadn't coordinated being there the same week, and by then Eric had left Bryce. It was such an odd coincidence, and fun at the same time. I love finding people I know at random places.

Once we were down in Queens Garden, we debated whether to just give Navajo Loop a try.  We were pretty sure we would just go back up the way we came, then at the last minute decided to just do Navajo Loop. I'm glad we did because it was mostly a pretty walk, and then a steep hike up a cool slot canyon.  Either way we needed to go up, and so it was fun to see something new.  Since Navajo Loop is actually a loop, we only got to see the Two Bridges side.  When we saw what Wall Street looked like, we wished we had tried that one.  But it was still fun and had some cool things to see.

 We found Thor's hammer and got plenty of pictures with it too.

This is what Ashlyn looked like as we walked back into our campground.  I think just a few more minutes and she would have been out.  Since I knew she was so tired, and I was sure Lauren was too, I decided to take them on a walk in the stroller to get them to sleep.  I thought it would be a quick thing, and boy was I wrong.  I think I walked a good 3 or 4 miles before they finally fell asleep.  My legs were tired after hiking, and then pushing a stroller up and down the hills.

Jayden stepped on a nail.  Its a good thing he is current on his shots.

Devon took the boys up to the rim that second evening to see some of what we had seen the night before.  Then that night Dylan and I went to see the stargazing event going on.  We just happened to be there the weekend it was a new moon and the star gazing was awesome.  We saw lots of Jupiter, Mars, and several cool clusters and other things I can't even remember.  It was super dark because they didn't let any lights on.  There were just some red lights on the ground to help you know where to stay.  They said don't wander, because the rim was just beyond where we were.  The next night Devon took Jayden and Ethan.

The next day we hiked the mossy cave.  I just love kids in hiking backpacks.  Ashlyn loves to give us her cheesy face for pictures.

We ate lunch in Tropic, where Grandpa Great Barton grew up.  Then we drove out to the end of the road in Bryce and stopped at just about every scenic viewpoint there was... just because we could.  The kids complained, but just watched a movie in the car.  I had fun seeing it all.  Every once in a while some of the kids would jump out and take a look too.   At one of the stops there was a big black bird, maybe a raven, that just sat there.

Our last stop was Inspiration Point.  Bryce Point was closed, which is a bummer, but this was an awesome view.  Since the kids were to a grumpy point after all our driving, Ashlyn and I got out to see it, then Devon was going to take a turn with a few kids.  Once we got out and started walking what I thought was a short trail, we saw that there was a lower lookout, a middle lookout, and a higher up one.  After seeing the first, we decided to go higher, and then we decided to go to the top. Ashlyn was a trooper and would walk some, then have have me hold her some.  Everyone thought she was so cute. It was beautiful and well worth the steep climb.  Ashlyn was so funny going down.  She wanted to just run.  I was laughing so hard as I held on to her hand and ran with her, mostly because she was laughing so hard too.  We were probably quite a sight. Once we got down and told everyone how cool it was, almost everyone went up with Devon.  When the last of the stragglers decided they wanted to take a look, I went back up with them and we caught up to the rest of our family at the top.

Card games and camping just go together.  It was a little windy, so we found rocks to hold our cards down.

Roasting over the fire is a favorite thing of ours.  The kids have started to try roasting all sorts of candy. Sour patch watermelons and salt water taffy are actually pretty good roasted.