Friday, September 4th, we made it to Tropic, Utah, a small town outside Bryce Canyon National Park. We met up with Natalie’s dad, Ted, and his wife, Pam, for a weekend of hiking. Bryce Canyon is known for it’s famous rock formations called Hoodoos. They’s tall thin spires of rock that go up from the base rock and are caused by erosion from wind, rain, ice and snow.
The rock formation known as a hoodoo
We hiked the Navajo and Peekaboo trails in Bryce Canyon. The Navajo trail leads down a series of switchbacks.
Hiking down in to the hoodoos
Farther down the trail
At the bottom of the switchback trail there were big straight trees reaching towards the sunlight above
At the bottom of the switchbacks we hiked farther along the Navajo loop to the Peekaboo trail that took us back up for another view of the hoodoos in the valley.
Partway through our hike we stopped for a photo near the rim
Sully took a break during our hike
Riding with Grandpa Ted
Panorama of the beautiful view
Through a tunnel to continue our hike
More gorgeous views
Another beautiful view
Sully wore his cool kid sunglasses for some of the hike
Climbing down and hiking around was just too much for Sully
Sully passed out after lunch
We found some trail markers that said if you take a medallion rubbing of 3 emblems or photos to the rangers station you get a free gift at the ranger’s station.
First Emblem
And the third
After our hike was over we found 4 different markers and I took the pictures to the ranger’s station and we all got stickers saying, “I hiked the hoodoos!” The weather was perfect and cool and we had a great time in one of our new favorite National Parks.
The next day we weren’t all worn out from hiking in Bryce, so we did another hike on Ted’s hiking bucket list.
We drove about an hour down the winding dirt road from Escalante to the trailhead of Peekaboo and Spooky Gulches to explore the slot canyons. We were really far out in the boonies.
Hiking down with Sully
Large stone cairns marked the trail
The entrance to Peekaboo Slot Canyon starts out by going straight up
In Peekaboo
Preparing to go around the next bend
A fun father daughter hike through the rocks
Heading up and in
This was Sully’s longest hike. It worked out for him because we were really slow so there was lots of time for him to climb around on rocks and sit or explore.
Hello hikers!
I took some creative upper routes
Teamwork was necessary to navigate the slot canyons. At one point there was a straight drop 10 feet down. We found the easiest way to get down was for me to slide down first, and then everyone else slid down a rock onto my shoulders. Then they were lowered down to the ground. Yes, my father-in-law was sitting on my shoulders!
Sully found a spot, just his size
Hiking out of Peekaboo
Inside the water carved out different shapes in the rock based on the rock density
High and narrow
Sully liked to “hide” and roar at us as we passed by his little play caves
Sully hiked under the arches while we squatted and crawled
A short break
Tight quarters
Sully was just the right size to walk everywhere
Squeezing through
Natalie liked the hike, but got a little claustrophobic in Spooky.
On our way back up and out
Sully helped Grandpa Ted stretch it out after the hike
All the hiking wore Sully out!
On Monday, with our weekend hiking rendezvous over, we said goodbye to Ted and Pam. As they headed home, we headed to a new campground to spend the night on our way to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.
Our last hike was down the Riverside walk in through a narrow canyon with a river flowing through it.
