Re: TR: Under the Rim trail 1st segment - Bryce Canyon

Hello all!

Writing this trip report a little late but thought you guys would like some of the photos! It's my first time using flickr so I apologize for any formatting issues!

For President's day weekend, our friend Melissa from NZL decided to pay us a visit. Having gone to Dewey already for the year, we decided to make our way out to Utah. The original plan was to travel to Kolob Canyon to check out the arch BUT...when we got there, it was still raining with some slush and a whole lot of redish clay like mud. Not wanting to walk through mud for 7-8 miles, we opted to head North east towards Bryce to do a segment of the Under the Rim trail. Upon arriving at the visitor center and asking for permits, the ranger gave us a strange look and wasn't even sure they handed permits out during winter Supposedly, we were the first backpackers of the year at Bryce.

It was a bit difficult getting to the trailhead as we had arrived early before any plowing was done. Was very thankful for the tire chains we brought along.

Starting off on the trail, it was easy to follow as there was a packed down trail for the first half mile or so. After that, it was fresh powder but boy was it gorgeous! Fog was coming in as we descended into the Hoodoos
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Sighting of some hoodoos on the way down
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There was also some neat rime kind of looking ice on the trees

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The descent was a tad bit tricky with the fresh powder. Definitely seemed a bit avy risky so we stayed near anchors as much as we could.

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This sign gave us hope that we were going the right way

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Eventually we made it to this spectacular view of more fog

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It was at this moment, I started regretting driving 7-8 hours to get here...however, with a little patience+ a snack break, the fog moved away and gave us some pretty nice views

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As we descended lower, there was more clay than snow but still gorgeous

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Some furry pals were here

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Some formation called the hats
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More fog!
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After a few more miles, we found our campsite for the night by Yellow creek. Oddly, the naming of this creek was off...instead of Yellow, it should of been pure red clay creek!
Now as I had wanted to do a snow trip, I decided to make it feel like a snow trip by camping on the last few bits of snow left at the site! (Actually, it was just the safest spot away from trees )

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I didn't take any pictures, but with a relatively high humidity, everything had hoar frost on it in the morning...made packing up a very slow chore.
For breakfast, I tried emulating a recipe I've seen many times here...
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Was definitely yummy! Afterwards we got on our merry way and headed back to the trailhead. Almost all the snow before the last mile of the trail had melted by then so it was easier to make up the hills. A short trip but still very fun!

Was also the first outing of these amazing things! Boy was it nice to have warm feet in the morning!
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2017 01:12AM by KevinD.

Thanks for the TR, Kevin. Bryce is such a fascinating NP. Only been there once (for a few days) and, IIRC, Under-the-Rim was the only trail that I did NOT get onto so nice to see some of it from a hiker's perspective (even with the copious fog!). Glad you enjoyed the trip.

Gorgeous is right.