After immersing ourselves within the canyon at Queen’s Garden, we wanted to find another quick pit stop within Bryce before calling it for the evening. We stayed in a hotel this night instead of sleeping in the van, so we didn’t feel nearly as crunched for time.

We were surprised when the GPS took us what-felt-like pretty far outside of actual Bryce Canyon to get here. If I would’ve realized it was here, we should’ve stopped in on the way in instead – that would’ve involved way less backtracking But it was all good, and we got super lucky to arrive around 6:30pm and have the place basically to ourselves.

“Because no river runs through it, Bryce Canyon is not truly a canyon. Instead it is a series of natural amphitheaters carved into the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. These bowl-shaped features contain the world’s largest collection of varied rock spires known as hoodoos…”

“This streamside walk leads to a small cave that fills with summer moss and winter ice. At one time, water only flowed through Water Canyon after summer storms and spring snowmelt. After settlers completed an irrigation canal in 1892, water was diverted from the plateau above, steeply eroding these fragile canyon wall sand feeding a waterfall that regularly freezes in winter…”

The trailhead sign also talks about there being one of the “Hike the Hoodoos” golden markers here. I wish I would’ve known this existed! I would’ve made it part of our mission to collect all three.

I really loved that bridge. Hopefully it’s not too obvious…

Then we found the golden marker!

“The trail splits here, with each side leading to water that is crucial for life in a dry land. To the left, a natural spring seeps from a rocky cliff, watering plants as it has for untold time. To the right, Water Canyon is fed by the Tropic Ditch – an irrigation canal dug by Mormon pioneers in the late 1800’s. Historically, this wash flowed only during periods of melting snow or heavy rain. Today, irrigation water flows May to October, bringing life to valley crops and orchards.”

We veered left and uphill – to the Mossy Cave! It was awesome that the ice was still here, we were psyched.

“At Mossy Cave, slightly acidic groundwater seeps through the harder limestone layer, dissolving and eroding the softer layer underneath. This cool, moist, shaded environment is a perfect habitat for mosses to thrive. As temperatures drop, the dripping water freezes, creating impressive icicles that sometimes last into summer.”

The pretty pink rhyolite rock on the hillside was pretty too.

After backtracking from Mossy Cave and passing that golden trail marker, we headed straight this time (to the right), which lead us across a cute stream and gave us another view of that cute bridge. We could finally see the other side of the hill where the river usually was, except it was still completely blocked with snow/ice, which then meant the waterfall was dried up.

Seeing the dried pinkish minerals lining the riverbed was cool, and it gave us such a unique opportunity to explore the riverbed itself and walk where water would normally be flowing.

And then I realized all of the river rocks were PINK.

And I got very stuck, as per usual. Oops.

And yeah, of course I had to touch every single one. That the biggest one in the second-to-last pic is top runner for my favorite.

Isn’t it so cool how the almost-full moon was centered above that little gap?

We made the easy peasy half-ish mile walk back to the car. We were done a little before 7:30pm, and headed straight to our digs for the night at the Bryce View Lodge.

The company that owns Bryce View also owns half of the touristy accommodations in Bryce Canyon City. They’re called Ruby’s. Our room came with free breakfast in the restaurant they own across the street. I love that. You’ll allllways find these monopolies in big National Park towns.

We didn’t realize how late it’d gotten and everything closes by 8:30pm, so we basically ran across the street to our hotel’s restaurant and grabbed dinner. The area where we walked through was like a little western town with a rock store, souvenirs, etc., but it hadn’t opened for the season yet. We walked back to the room and spread our dinner out smorgasbord style as always. We got a pizza to share, and Ike got orange chicken with rice while I got a grilled cheese haha. We also ran into this super cute spicy community kitty.

We left the next morning bright and early and readied ourselves to head neck-deep into the Grand Staircase Escalante & Vermillion Cliffs National Monuments. Leaving Bryce was pretty symbolic on our trip because it was the last National Park that we planned to visit. It signaled the winding down of our adventures… but we still had a few more days to go and maaannn, we really really made the most of it.

Bryce Canyon National Park via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/brca/index.htm

Mossy Cave trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/utah/mossy-cave-turret-arch-and-little-windows-trail

Book your stay at Bryce View Lodge:
https://www.bryceviewlodge.com/