Eastern Europe Trip

After a sound night’s sleep we packed our stuff, as we could only book one night in the “Ivy” room and so are being moved to the “Garden” room whilst we’re out today. Then it was down to breakfast, which was a big surprise – delicious pastries cooked by our hosts John and Wendy, served with fresh coffee, orange juice and a smoothie. As soon as we’d finished breakfast, John came and asked the other guests and us what our plans were before imparting some really sound advice on how to get the best out of our day. His nugget of advice for us was to take the “Moss Cave” walk before entering the park – a walk from a small car park on the side of the road to Bryce Canyon that we’d passed before and wondered what it was.

So we set off and found the trail leaving the car park and heading into the wilderness on a narrow trail through some stunning desert scenery…






The path wandered along the side of a stream that had been created by the Mormon pioneer, Ebenezer Bryce, who with his wife, Mary, had established their home here and given their name to the canyon. In order to establish a reliable source of water they had to dig a ditch along the high plateau to feed water into this stream. The ditch took them 2 years, but meant that there is water here all year round some 110 years later. It’s quite beautiful, especially in the early morning before the trail sees many visitors – Tracy and I had it all to ourselves…






From the waterfall at the end of the trail we followed a side track to Moss Cave, so named because of the extensive moss that surrounds the cave all year round, a side effect of Ebenezer’s work. The peace and quiet of this spot was fantastic, and we sat and admired the scenery for a good few minutes before heading back along the trail to our car.

From here we drove back into Bryce Canyon National Park and parked up at Sunset Point, where the Navajo trail starts. Our intention was to hike along the Navajo loop, and then see how we were bearing up before deciding on whether to return, take the Queens Garden trail or head out onto the Peek-a-Boo trail, which heads right into the depths of the canyon and in amongst the hoodoos, but would be seriously challenging for both of us, Tracy in particular, given it’s only 9 months since she had her spine fused…

The start of the Navajo loop is very steep as it descends quickly in a series of zig-zags into a narrow slot canyon before opening out amongst the weird shapes of the hoodoos...














Once clear of the slot canyon, the valley opened up in the sunshine, and it wasn’t long before we were wandering along, enjoying the fresh air and the feeling of being outdoors doing something physical. Tracy was more than happy, her back not giving her any grief (yet!) and so we made the decision to do the full walk – all 7.5 miles of it.






The walk didn’t stay in the valley for long, though, and started winding its way up and down amongst the strange hoodoo shapes, sometimes reaching almost the same height as the canyon rim before heading back down into the next valley. Certainly challenging walking, in blistering heat, but with such spectacular views that it was worth every step. On several occasions we were passed by groups enjoying horseback trekking on the same narrow, steep, paths. The leaders of these groups were real-life cowboys, with a cheery “Howdy Folks!” when they saw us, and a “Thank-y’all, enjoy your day!” when they were safely past us (as we stood still at the side of the trail, scared in case we frightened the horses into jettisoning their cargo into the woods below!).






After what seemed like an eternity of walking up and down and between these spectacular rock formations, we arrived at a junction in the path that we took for the half-way point of the Peek-a-Boo trail. We stopped here for some lunch, high energy protein bars we’d bought at the general store washed down with yet more water (we’d packed around 4 litres and knew we were going to need it all). Whilst sat at the side of the path, we recognised a couple of women we’d seen on the trail earlier. When we enquired as to how they had got here so quickly, we realized that we were well past the half-way point, and that certainly lifted out spirits, as we were both getting fairly tired and knew that from the end of the Peek-a-Boo trail we still had a few miles to go, including the long climb back out of the canyon…






Back on the trail and with our energy levels restored we continued to climb up and down, seeking shelter from the intense heat of the sun whenever the opportunity arose. At one stop we were joined by a couple of chipmunks, who didn’t seem in any way shy of hikers – but they went hungry as there are warnings throughout the park about the dangers of feeding them – to both humans and chipmunks…










After a very long final climb out of the canyon, on the Queens Garden trail, which was fortunately not as steep as our initial descent, we emerged at Sunrise Point, just a short half-mile walk back to the car… but before then, Tracy wanted to take a well earned rest…






The sense of achievement at completing the walk was fantastic, and once again my remarkable wife had astounded me with her resilience and determination. I was totally exhausted after the walk – it was certainly not easy – but she’d done it without complaint just 9 months after having an operation on her spine, and 6 months after she’d just started walking again. Quite a woman… To celebrate (and prove that I really was on the hike with her!) we grabbed a passing tourist and got them to take our picture…





Suitably worn out we headed back to the Stone Canyon Inn and checked in to our new room – which was just as beautiful as the one we had the previous night…






After a long soak in the Jacuzzi bath (in which Tracy put slightly too much bubble-bath, meaning we had our own foam-party!), we headed back out to catch the sunset at Sunset Point, and watched as the colours of the hoodoos changed from orange to deep red…






After taking hundreds of photos (I’ll save you the chore of spotting the difference for now!), we made our way back into Tropic and to Clarke’s restaurant where we’d eaten the night before. The waiter recognised us straight away (might have something to do with the large tip I left yesterday) and we once again enjoyed stuffing our faces with good food. This time it was onion rings to start (lots of them!) followed by trout for Tracy and a big steak for me. It wasn’t too long before we were satiated and made our way back to the inn. After watching TV for a while we finally turned in, tired out after the day’s trek, but feeling very pleased with ourselves…