Bryce, Alone, In the Snow

Jacqueline let me have a day on my own to go for a hike, so I chose to go to Bryce to get a good long hike in. Since we had kids, it had been much tougher to take full days and really just put some miles in. The winter had been pretty mild, so I figured Bryce would be a decent bet. I did the two hour drive and they let me go in for free. The park was beautiful and temperatures were pretty comfortable. I went out to the Swamp Canyon trailhead. From here, there were two paths and I chose the one that went to the south because it looked less snowy. I was a little worried when I first started that there would be nothing but snow this entire hike, but as I dropped elevation down to the Under the Rim trail, I quickly discovered that I was incorrect and mud would be the main concern.

The trail would go in and out from being muddy to being nice and clear, but there was really a minimal amount of snow once on the Under the Rim trail. It was quiet out and by quiet, I mean, I saw no one else on the trail.

The views were great and it was nice to be down low looking at the snowy cliffs above. I put some miles in and made it as far as the Yellow Creek campsite. Here I had lunch down by the creek. I wanted to go further, but knew I should probably turn around. On the way back, I enjoyed the views and listened to some music. I decided to take a different route back and try the snowier side of the trail. This was going fine until I hit a wide open spot and the trail just disappeared. I looked closely at my map and realized that the trail was going to go up the hill through the snow.

 That looked like a formidable obstacle. I wasn't about to go back, so instead, I decided to cross country it through the snowy field. This was quite ridiculous as the road was right next to me. I thought about walking the road, but that looked longer. I just post holed for 15-20 minutes, got a good workout in and eventually popped out on the other trail which I was able to follow back to the car. Minor bump in a rather comfortable day just putting in the miles and enjoying the scenery.