Bryce Canyon Under The Rim
The desert environment is a place my midwestern body has taken a long while to get used too. Between the lack of water, dry air, and non-alpine terrain my brain & body has never truly adjusted.
With knowing this, I decided to leave Salt Lake City on a late fall Friday afternoon and drive south for some time in the sand. I slept in my 4runner outside the National Park and got up Saturday morning with cold toes & warm hands.
This run was a training for an Ultra I had coming up in a few weeks & I couldn’t have picked a better day to do this. And like any good old fashion fun, the day started with leftover pasta, coffee, and little lag in my step to get going. It was a cold & windy sunrise.
But to being the day, I started on the southern end of the park at Yovimpa Point Trailhead and followed the Under the Rim Trail north to the visitor center. Below showcases the Ponderosa Ridge up high and the sandy trail I followed north.
As the daylight hours burned away I found ease in the orange colors and immense landscape. Following the Under the Rim Trail could not be anything less than unimaginable. Between the hoodos and partly cloudy skies, my heart felt free of reality and I enjoyed every step I made in the sand.
The picture above shows the fire burn trauma in Bryce Canyon
Towards the end of the day I was getting worked. My foot steps got heavier and the pasta I ate for breakfast became unsettling after hours of jostling.
I called up a friend whom I knew was visiting the National Park and told him to meet at the Visitor Center. Sure enough my phone battery died and I ended meeting some Van Lifer’s who were happy to give me a charge. The couple were California sailors / mountain bikers road tripping across desert.
By the end of the day I experienced a National park on a personal level of solitude. I met zero people on the southern end the park & encountered my first human on the ascent to the visitor center. It goes to show the positives of taking the road less traveled.
The small video below shows a non-popular area of Bryce Canyon.
