Camping Adventure and Hiking at Bryce Canyon National Park
Note from Mike’s Lands, LLC: This is a guest post by Ned Patron, a local Utah photographer/videographer. As part of this project, he visited our 0.66 Acre lot in Kane County, Utah in September 2021. Enjoy his experience, and feel free to check out his other work here: Ned Patron
Driving through the winding highways through the mountains of Kanab County, Utah I watched the sun begin to set over the small towns lining the road. The sky was turning pink and blue and cast a perfect orange tint over the hills that brought out the colors of the ground below perfectly. Conditions were coming together for a beautiful night of camping.
Pulling into the gravel off Highway 89 to get to the property below, put me into a cozy field of grass and vibrant yellow bushes at the very edge of a small neighborhood away from any houses. There was a car-sized gap between a couple of the bushes along the road that I drove through that allowed me to turn into the clearing where I would set up my campsite. I set up my tent, chair, and a small portable fire pit as soon as I could so I wouldn’t miss another second of the view from the small valley. I pulled out my camera and set up my framing for colorful shots of the scene I was in.
As the sun kept falling, I took out my phone to check where the Milky Way will be appearing in the sky and found that it would be perfectly placed to the south, following the same direction as the valley so that it would line up right between the hills on both sides. I sat back and watched the sun set over the hills and waited patiently for the sky to darken enough to see the stars, and after a little while the Milky Way appeared! I immediately began taking pictures and loved the results.
Once the moon came over the nearby hills the stars disappeared for the night, so I got ready to call it. I brought out my sleeping pad and bag and tucked myself into the tent. In the morning I woke up to an amazing sunrise and got to work heating up water for a lazy freeze-dried meal of pasta to start the day. The drive to Bryce Canyon National Park was about 40 minutes or so to end up in some beautiful scenery. The red rock formations blew me away, even on the approach to the park. But what was special was the view at the first location I visited in the park, Inspiration Point. Overlooking the massive spires of rock below felt like I walked onto a different planet.
Inspiration Point - Bryce Canyon National Park
After tearing myself away from the observation points over the canyon below, I drove along to Bryce Point where I would find the trailhead to the Peek-A-Boo Loop trail that I researched beforehand. Unfortunately, when arriving at the entrance to the trail I saw it was currently closed, possibly for rockslides or maintenance, so I continued onto the trail next to it called Under the Rim Trail. This trail was designed with backpacking in mind with its 22.4-mile length, so I only went about a mile downhill on it before turning back around, but not before capturing some of the amazing rock formations up close and personal.
I cannot wait to visit Bryce Canyon again and give both trails the proper hike they deserve, but for now I’ll just have to keep looking forward to heading back!