bryce canyon week.

our fourth national park in the mighty five of utah was bryce canyon. we had a week scheduled there, with the hopes of getting a first come first serve site in the park campground. a few days before we left, we were looking around our beloved campendium app and found a great boondocking spot in the national forest, only about 2 miles outside the park entrance. we changed our plans and rolled in around noon on saturday.

the spot was pretty awesome. the campers before us left a nice little pile of firewood, there was no one else in eyesight, and we were surrounded by tall pine trees.

once we were settled in, we headed into the park, to check out a few scenic viewpoints, and get our bearings. we couldn’t turn down to the more populated spots, because they were full on this beautiful saturday afternoon, so we drove to the end of the road, where we got this pretty good view.

on the road back, we stopped at the natural bridge overlook, not realizing it would be right up next to the road and we wouldn’t have to drag any kids on any strolls. (we left two of them in the car).

thankfully, the roads were opened to get to the cool spots on the way back and we lucked out with parking. we dragged the kids out to take in this view.

they were sort of grumpy at this point. the long drive from capitol reef. then more driving through bryce. the stopping and walking out to overlooks that they weren’t super impressed with. but we managed a halfway decent pic of the three.

more views.

the first campfire at our new spot.

on monday, i drove over to the post office in tropic, to pick up my brand new fancy pants iphone 8s. then i took a bunch of pictures of the kids with the portrait feature.

junior ranger book.

on tuesday, i took the kids to “mossy cave”. i had read that it was pretty cool. and the kids were working on their “i hiked the hoodoos” page in their junior ranger books (adults can do this too). basically, they had to hike over three miles on a set of approved trails and get selfies with or rubbings off three benchmarks along the trails. we logged about 2.4 miles and 2 rubbings on sunday, so we picked the easiest and shortest one to finish the requirements. that said, here’s some views along the mossy cave hike.

their legs were pretty tired from the hike on sunday. so we moved slooooowwwwwly.

rock-paper-scissors lesson.

mossy cave was sort of interesting but a bit of a letdown. basically, water seeps through the rock and all sorts of green lush stuff grows, including, you guessed it, moss. we took some pics. and turned around.

on the way back, we detoured to take a look at a waterfall. it was also disappointing. oh well. we got our benchmark rubbing and headed back to camp.

the kids LOVED the campsite. they made their own american ninja warrior course. and a rope swing. and they spent all day outside. i used my portrait mode to document the fun.

there was a lot of dirt.

on wednesday, we finished up the junior ranger requirements, by hitting up the prairie dog program. we arrived with just enough time to see a few prairie dogs popping their heads out for us to see.

iphone through binocular shot. high quality.

prairie dog observers.

on the way back, we stopped off at the visitor center to make our junior ranger-hood official. the kids got a sticker for hiking the hoodoos, and i got one too!

we had several campfires during our time, but one super epic one with some new friends, that i didn’t manage to take a single picture of. when we first announced our road trip plans almost two years ago, a friend from high school put me in touch with another family that she knew who was making the same plans to hit the road. we have communicated back and forth online for awhile now, but our paths finally actually crossed in bryce. they came over to hang out and it was like hanging with old friends, they were great. they had three boys, 11, 10 and 6 and hit it off with my kiddos. we hope to see them again, sometime…

the last night. we will miss this spot.

we decided to leave friday after derek got off work and boondock at a walmart closer to zion. but first, we did a massive pile of laundry, took showers at a nearby campground and washed the camper. the last part was way more work than it was worth. anna attempted to help but the sprayer knocked her back everytime. it was cold and miserable and when it was all said and done, took like $40. plus i missed a bunch of spots and now we look all patchy and weird. oh well.

and that pretty much sums up most of the week at bryce. we took two pretty awesome hikes and i’m going to post about them next. lucky you.