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| Hiking | 7.80 Miles |
1,300 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.80 Miles | 3 Hrs | | 2.84 mph |
| 1,300 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Two friends from the North Rim came up to camp in the Dixie and visit us at Bryce Canyon NP.
Last night was a full moon so we thought "hey! Let's do a full moon hike!"
The four of us piled in my car and I parked at Sunrise Point, we hiked the 2.7 miles along the Rim Trail from Sunrise Point to Bryce Point. This was almost entirely uphill and kept us warm in the 39° windy evening.
By the time we reached Bryce Point the moon was rising just over the horizon! Perfect timing.
We stared down from the rim and made it onto the Peekaboo trail just as the moon began to light up "The Wall of Windows" above us. The Peekaboo trail is beautiful and fun lots of ups and downs on trail. Some horse poop to contend with but nothing like North Kaibab Trail 
The moon lit up the hoodoos and everything was grey and chalky in color. It was a very alien environment and I understand why a few people suggested I night hike the hoodoos. I think it was a good suggestion.
We only saw two groups of people. The first was a young pair of guys stinking of weed and heading down the Peekaboo trail just ahead of us. We passed like ships in the night.
Once you've reached the end of the upper part of Peekaboo you come to a few junctions one right after the other. The first one we turned left to veer away from the rest of the Peekaboo loop and towards the north part of the Bryce Amphitheatre. The next was also a left and now we were traipsing through a soft creek bottom type area surrounded by Ponderosa Pines and Manzanita.
The final junction we met a group of five folks wandering up in the soft moonlight. We each had a decision to make, they call this junction and it's companion Bench the "Bench of Decisions".
You can exit Wall Street side of Navajo Loop, or It Two Bridges side or you can go an extra few thousand feet overall and complete the "Bryce Amphitheatre Traverse" by exiting via Queen's Garden. We opted to complete the traverse, plus it brought us right back to my car.
Things I learned throughout this hike:
- I need a brighter red light. I ended up walking in front of our group using my dimmest white light setting because my red didn't even reach the ground! There were many points were the moonlight wasn't sufficient to hike in, especially with so much winding downhill.
- I miss night hiking! Haven't done much of it in a hot minute.
- even with the moon up we could make out the Milky Way out here! Sweeeet!
- Ponderosa Pines smell stronger at night, or maybe it's just that our sense of sight is challenged by the dark so our nose kicks in?
Anyway, there you have it. Another Bryce hike checked off my list. What's next? |
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