Fairyland Trail (Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah)

From what Nick described to me, he had hiked a portion of this trail a few months back, but due to a knee injury he sustained at Zion, was unable to finish the 8.5-mile Fairyland Trail. That would all change this morning, as we decided to complete it in its entirety. The trail begins innocently enough from a vista point overlooking the Fairyland Canyon, which connects to the northern end of the Bryce Amphitheater. A slow decent through hoodoo formations yields some fantastic views of the amazing scenery. The hoodoo in this part of the canyon must number in the thousands and every twist and turn of the trail leads to views of more and more fantastic formations of them.

A mile or so in, we left the trail slightly to investigate a small formation that seemed to completely enclose an area in sandstone. Climbing up into the feature yielded a quiet little corner completely surrounded by the tall formations - a hidden cave with a skylight of sorts. Climbing back down to the trail, we continued onward over ever rolling hills through this amazing place.

At about the halfway mark, we reached a high peak overlooking the main amphitheater on one side and the Fairyland canyon on the other. We traversed this razors edge and thought of the pioneers that came before us who trail blazed this hike. What amazing thoughts must have been rolling around in their heads as they saw this landscape for the first time. I sometimes envy those great men and women, and wish I could have taken part in finding some of these gems in the old west.

Continuing on we find a sign indicating a natural bridge lay ahead short distance. And then, off in the distance we see this wondrous formation. A natural bridge made of sandstone. It almost looked manmade, but obviously was not. I got some great shots of the natural wonder. According to what Nick had been told, the side trail leading to the base of the natural bridge did not offer very good views of it and so we continued on, content with the shots that we had taken from afar.

 As the sun continued to rise overhead, the heat of the day began pressing down on us and as we neared the end of the trail, we found a lush meadow carpeted with grass and spring wildflowers, and a legion of insects about their business in the field. It was a sharp contrast to what we had seen below, as we had only a short time before commented about the lack of insects in the canyon.

The hour reaching early afternoon, we arrived back at Nick's car and headed out for our next destination on this long weekend trip.