Bryce Canyon to the North Rim

[Friday 15 September]

Leaving Zion felt like leaving a little bit of our soul. We have so thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the canyon, the peace and quiet, the nearness to nature that so often escapes me. We will certainly miss the “straight-up land.”

But leave we must. Packed up, checked out we were on the road heading down canyon one last time. We turned east on Rt 9 heading up to Mt. Carmel Tunnel where, for reasons which never became clear, the park service had closed one lane, causing traffic backups in both directions. Fortunately traffic wasn’t heavy and we had to wait only about 7 minutes before it was our turn to slide through the darkness. While there were no installed lights in the tunnel, our headlights picked up the many reflectors along the way, providing just the right amount of light for travel. There were also several openings cut into the canyon side of the tunnel, allowing for air flow and ventilation. Let’s not forget, this thing was built back in 1930.

Once through the tunnel, we were on our way east headed for Bryce Canyon. The one thing that immediately struck both of us was the dramatic change in topography, a phenomenon that would confront us throughout the day’s travel. 

We soon reached Rt 89 at Mt. Carmel, and turned north for 40 miles or so, leaving the highway to Bryce at Rt 12 which took us through the stunning Red Canyon.

It wasn’t long before we turned onto Rt 63 which took us into Bryce Canyon City. We left our car just outside the national park in the free shuttle lot, showed our passes to the shuttle driver and were soon off to the park. 

shuttle station

The first shuttle stop was at Bryce Point for our first gorgeous view of the Bryce Amphitheater. Hoodoos all around with striations of reds, yellows and whites.

 view of Inspiration Point

Stellar or western Jay

Once we re-boarded the shuttle, our next stops included Inspiration Point, Sunset Point (where we saw people hiking down into the canyon and from which we took a short walk to check out the Bryce Canyon Lodge), and finally Sunrise Point.

Inspiration Point (elevation 8100 feet):

Sunset Point:

note the hikers on the trail

lodge

Sunrise Point:

While there is more to see and experience in Bryce Canyon, we opted to head back to the shuttle parking area for our next leg. We returned to our car just in time to avoid one of those passing mountain/canyon rain showers which seem to pop up out of nowhere. We sat it out while we had a light lunch of cheese and crackers before heading off to the Grand Canyon North Rim.

The drive was about 160 miles, taking us down highway 89 through Kanab and Fredonia where we turned onto 89Alt. The roads were generally in good shape except on the drive south of Fredonia where we experienced our one and only poor roadway. Fortunately that soon turned to a brand-new road surface once we began our climb out of the valley.

At Jacob Lake we left 89Alt and turned onto Rt 67, the only road into the park. For the next 40 or so miles there was nothing but gorgeous landscapes of mountain meadows, forests of Aspen and one or two enormous burn fields. 

We eventually arrived at the park entrance, showed our passes, and scooted on through. It was another 11 miles of woods, meadows and pretty much nothing else until we caught spectacular views of the canyons parallel to the road. Once we arrived at the visitors center, we parked and headed to the lodge itself.

Our excitement soon dulled however as we made our way to check in for our two night stay. There was a queue, perhaps not surprisingly since it was Friday after all, but even with three clerks working the desk, it took us the better part of 50 minutes to get checked in! Having just experienced the 2-minute check-in process at the Zion Lodge (managed/owned by the same company), we were dumbfounded as to the problem. (We never did learn what it was.) 

But that was just the beginning. 

While waiting in the queue we learned that the dining room was fully booked for the evening; we did manage to snag a reservation for the next evening for 9:30 pm. The only food option was a dodgy “deli” serving sandwiches and pizza slices. There was also a general store a mile or so away. We soon discovered they offered very little, and virtually no fresh fruit.

We made our way to our room located at the edge of the complex in a separate building, the furthest one from the lodge proper. I was able to park our car closer to our room later in the day, once the day trippers had vacated the premises. While most the lodge's accommodations are cabins, our building, one of two referred to as the motel, looked new-ish and from the outside appeared well designed and well-built. 

But we no sooner opened the door than we were greeted by some rather disturbing elements. The room was small — picture those views of cabins on board the standard class of cruise ships -- and the bathroom was squeezed in almost as an afterthought. The place looked tired, dingy and generally as if the management had simply bought an old rundown motel and moved the interiors inside this new building. We thought it odd.

And then things started to fall apart. When Susan tried to open the only window it simply came out of the track and was certainly not about to stay open. We headed off to the front desk but along the way passed a maintenance guy who came to our aid. He was back in a flash to our room and fixed the window tout de suite. Oh, and when we tried to plug in our chargers to one of the few accessible wall outlets, the prongs simply fell right out of the outlet.

In searching for another outlet, we found one behind the bed, but when attempting to move the bed to reach the outlet, the headboard fell off the wall (it was never affixed to the bed but somehow glued to the wall as a decoration). But we must say the management was quick to repair it.

The sunset was gorgeous that night and we considered ourselves fortunate to be in such a beautiful spot. 

The scenery and grandeur of the canyons can’t be beat, but, as Susan remarked, a place that is visited by folks from all over the world and considers itself a premier destination deserves more than what the Grand Canyon Lodge has to offer. Far too many people and far too few amenities.