Ego Boost in Bryce Canyon

 Leaving Capitol Reef, we were a little beat, we will admit. The confusion around our campsite that night did not help and we were generally pretty tuckered out. After some ups and downs, our luck turned around the next day. 

With our camp stove out of commission and maxed out on trail mix, we decided to go out for breakfast before entering Bryce. Having actual warm food was much needed, but during breakfast we realized that we didn't actually have reservations for Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, or any of the parks in Colorado except for the Great Sand Dunes. 

A new crisis to solve. What do we do now? 

Well, we looked into different possible alternatives surrounding each of the parks that we intended to go to in Colorado. This was troublesome and discouraging because we could either opt into paying about $250 per night or gamble that we would be one of nine to get a spot at local Forest Preserve within the region. This crisis is still on the table, and our scheduling skills are under review. We are still working towards finding possible solutions to this, but in the meantime we still had a national park to visit. Its Bryce time. 

It's safe to say that the vibes were tense entering Bryce. We have never been to the park before and we weren't sure what to expect. What's worse, our experience of embarrassing scheduling mishaps really left us discouraged. To our surprise, one of the coolest national parks welcomed us in and motivated us to explore! Once we got inside and saw the massive hoodoos we knew we were in good hands. We first stopped by the visitor center, stamping our passports and exploring the gift shop. We asked Park Rangers some integral questions about shuttles and campsites and different cool hikes. We opted into walking a good portion of the rim trail in which we met many colorful personalities and saw some spectacular views! 

It was drizzling the whole morning, but we didn't let that get us down and went on the Queen's Garden trail as well. After that, it was supposed to thunderstorm all afternoon so we headed back to our car. On the way, we saw that there was a shower building and laundromat in the park -- an opportunity we jumped on. 

Feeling clean, we went to our campsite and began trying to set up our tent. We wanted to add a tarp above it to act as an extra protection through the storm, but found that we didn't have enough rope to make anything work. After some thinking and watching the weather, we decided to just have faith in the tent's rain fly. 

Instead of rain, the bitter cold turned out to be the real issue for us. Looking around, we saw every other camper in a full coat, sweatpants, and a hat. What were we wearing? Every article of clothing we brought on our trip. And we were still cold! 

About 4:30 AM, we decided to sleep in the car, which was warm enough for the next 2 hours before we had to be up. Turns out that was enough, and we were roaring to go on our next hike: the Fairyland loop! 

The 8.5 mile hike traverses up 2,000ft in elevation and is one of the bigger hikes we have been on yet on our trip. We were expecting for it to take about 6 hours, but got it done in 3! And, as an extra ego boost we were called fast by other hikers on the trail. After years of getting lapped while huffing and puffing up a hill, this was a great feeling! 

When we got off the trail, we decided to shower and do our laundry once more, since we never really know when we can do it again. While at our car, we bonded with the woman parked next to us over how thankful we both were for these amenities. We spoke for a while, and discovered that she is also on a three month vacation! She took some time off at work and is traveling around, visiting friends, family and national parks! She wished us luck on our trip, and we parted ways. 

The overall experience we had in Bryce rejuvenated us body and soul. The food, views, and people we met all helped us feel more confident as we venture on to tackle our next park.