Southwest USA Trip - September 2015: Day 7 - Torrey to Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar City

Today was another day full of beautiful scenery and amazing views all around. I'm always surprised as well at just how quickly the scenery and landscape can change out here just as you turn a corner. A great example of that was during this morning's drive leaving Torrey on my way to Bryce Canyon.

My morning started out fairly typically except that I opted out of breakfast this morning. My hotel had a little restaurant attached that served breakfast. Not only was there a huge line this morning but I was also pretty ready to hit the road. So for me, breakfast consisted of my travel mug filled with my hotel room coffee and some granola bars that I had brought to snack on while driving. I will say though that my room had its own little Keurig coffee maker with some Green Mountain coffee pods so at least I had some decent tasting coffee.

The Dixie National Forest is one destination that I had on my list of places to try and see, however, I never really did any research on it to see exactly how you get to it or access it. Wasn't sure if it had specific entrances and exits or just something that was all around you. As I started my journey not very far from Torrey, I was glad to see that my route had be traveling right through it. I will say my route this morning did take me off the normal path a little bit but I'm glad it did. My reward was no one else on the road except for me, some grazing cows, and the deer.

So as I started to mention the changing scenery. Dixie Forest is a great example. You're leaving the beautiful mountains and rocky cliffs of Torrey and suddenly you're entering this forest of Aspens and Cedars. And on top of that was the colors of the Aspens had already started to change. These colors, combined with the early morning sunrise made for some great photo opportunities. And the occasional deer didn't make it bad either.

As I exited the "Dixie" to the South, I came through Escalante, UT. This then put be back on the regularly traveled road and through a beautiful overlook of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. After a few hours of driving, I arrived at the outskirts of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Before actually reaching the entrance to Bryce, there was a turnoff which contained more views and a hiking trail. I hiked back on the trail to a spectacular opening within a canyon. I could hear the sound of water as I approached to find a stream running right through the canyon. It was still fairly early in the morning at this time and let me tell you, it was still chilly too. And the minute you would walk through a shaded area, the chill in the air definitely woke you up.

Rounding the corner, I saw a bridge crossing over the stream and a lady standing down next to the stream painting. Yes, painting easel and all, with what appeared to be a great picture of one of the tall cathedral rock formations in progress.

After crossing the bridge and hiking further down the trail, the stream lead to a waterfall. And then another trail up to a cave. It was a beautiful hike and well worth the trip back into that canyon.

Soon after that, I reached the main entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. First upon entering was following the scenic drive all the way through the park to each of the well marked destinations and overlooks. The first overlook was Inspiration Point and you can easily see where it got its name. To reach the very top overlook required some very steep hiking but as with each hike, you are rewarded with the best views of the park and all around.

After Inspiration Point, I continued driving through the park to Fairview Point, Natural Bridge, Aqua Canyon, Ponderosa Point, Rainbow Point, Sheep Creek Swamp Canyon, Bryce Point, and Paria View. As you can see there was allot to cover and with all that came allot of pictures too. So after a full day in and around Bryce Canyon and Bryce City, I was ready to head out towards Cedar City which would be my destination for the night. Cedar City would then put me very close to Zion National Park which I will visit tomorrow.

While driving to Cedar City, it started to rain a little just as I arrived at another overlook of a small lake. The views of the lake from high above as well as more of the aspens and cedars aligning the roadway made for a very beautiful drive.

Ended the evening with a nice Mexican dinner in Cedar City and a small thunder storm after getting settled in. Not a bad day of travel at all and tomorrow just promises to be another great day. Just hoping Zion won't be too messy or muddy after the rain but not sure if they got it there or not. Either way, it's going to be beautiful. I loved Bryce and only hear great things about Zion too so I can't wait.

So until I complete that trip and post those pictures, it will have to wait. Thanks again for reading, following, and enjoying the pictures. When taking 200+ pictures a day it's hard to decide what to post so enjoy them all. Adios!

Just a note about my picture order. I fought with my internet connection all night trying to get all my pictures loaded and them posting the ones I selected. It then decided to load them in reverse order to the blog so while my blog represents the order of events, the pictures are in no particular order but don't think that really matters to anyone anyway.