We slept through the storm last night, and woke up nice and dry! We got another early start so that we could take a quick detour to Bryce Canyon National Park before we headed towards the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. We saw many different beautiful rock formations on our way out and it was beautiful!
It was a quick drive to nearby Bryce Canyon National Park, and we’re so glad we went a little out of the way to come here! We drove the scenic route and first stopped at Inspiration Point. The hoodoos (which is the name for the standing sandstone towers seen at Bryce Canyon) that we saw were awe-inspiring!
Our next stop on the scenic route was Sunset Point, and from here we decided to hike towards Sunrise Point, where Queens Garden Trail begins. Throughout the entire hike, we couldn’t get over how amazing these views were!
Queens Garden Trail is a steep hike into the canyon (approximately 400ft accent/descent), but only about a mile, so we were able to get up close and personal to these amazing hoodoos!
After seeing all the beautiful rock formations at Bryce Canyon, we started making our way south to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, where we’ll be staying for the next two nights! We decided to do the scenic route before we set camp, so we stopped at the different outlooks and trails to the east.
It was a little further from our campground, but we had some time and knew that we’d have a full day of mule riding tomorrow! We started off at Point Imperial, which gave us amazing panoramic views of the North Rim.
We quickly realized that all of the viewpoints we’d be stopping at would give us breathtaking views of the canyon, and even onto the South Rim, so of course we stopped at them all! Below are pictures of our stops at Vista Encantada and Walhalla Overlook. At Walhalla, we also saw an ancient Pueblo ruin, which some may just see as a bunch of rocks thrown together…but it was amazing to imagine this once being a family’s home!
We drove all the way to the end of the scenic route and stopped at Cape Royal, even doing the extended hike out to the viewpoint! We hiked this 1-mile trail that brought us to Angel’s Window and Cape Royal Viewpoint, but Joey had to take it a step further, literally!
We started making our way back to the North Rim Campground, especially after hearing a few more roars of thunder! We set up camp and Joey made a little fire so that we can make some dinner and s’mores! We’re just relaxing now and enjoying the night (before it possibly rains again). Tomorrow we’ll be riding mules down the Kaibab Trail into the inner rim of the Grand Canyon, which we’re both beyond excited about…so stay posted!!!