Labor Day Weekend 2019

This year we spent the Labor Day weekend with Alison’s family at Bryce Canyon National Park.

We left Friday afternoon. We left after work, but we both left work a little early. Kristin and Dan had a last-minute change of plans so they asked if we could take Skylee down with us. We were on the road around 4 p.m. We hit quite a bit of traffic until about Provo. After that it was clear. Skylee was not thrilled about the length of the ride. She kept asking us how long was left. At one point she was crying because she was so tired of the drive. When we asked what we could do to help she told us nothing. We got Skylee a sandwich for dinner and she ate some of it. It came in a styrofoam box. She decided that the lid of the box was Tex’s tray. She would put little pieces of sandwich in the lid and Tex would eat them. He is such a good boy and only ate the stuff she gave him. Skylee's favorite part of the drive was when we put her Baby Groot up on the dashboard for the last 30 minutes of the drive. We made it to camp around 8:30 p.m. We hung out for a bit before calling it a night.

We woke up early on Saturday morning and we went for a trail run on the rim trail in Bryce Canyon. Alison and I ran ~3 miles between Sunset Point and Fairyland Point. Since we got an early start we got to watch the sun rise over the canyon. It was absolutely stunning. The run itself was challenging. Alison and I stuck together - there were a couple of tough uphill sections, but the run mostly was downhill. I was very proud of Alison. It has been a long time since she ran, but she did great and she said she felt really good afterward.

We came back to camp and ate breakfast. After we ate we got the crew together and headed back into the National Park to hike the Queen’s Garden and Navajo loop trails. These trails are quintessential Bryce Canyon. It is a ~3-mile loop through hoodoos, deserts, and forests. It was awesome, if a bit hot in the afternoon sun. I was very impressed with Skylee on this hike. She did so well. She was dragging in the middle, but really made a great push at the end, which was the portion of the hike with the most incline and where the sun was really beating down. I was so proud of her. Also props to Debbie for powering through and completing the hike.

After our hike, we stopped at camp, ate food, and recovered. Alison and I took Tex on a hike near Red Canyon. This was our first time visiting Red Canyon. We really enjoyed it. We hiked the Bird’s Eye trailhead. It is so close to Bryce and so not crowded, especially for a holiday weekend. We only saw a couple of people the entire hike. It was short and beautiful. Tex was particularly excited about this little adventure.

We got back to camp and made dinner. At the last minute we switched with Blake and Debbie so we were in charge of dinner. We made all the fixings for tacos - meat, beans, tortillas, salsa, guacamole, chips, and lettuce. Everyone made tacos, salads, nachos, and quesadillas. After dinner, we hung around camp.

After dinner, we broke out a piñata to celebrate Meg's birthday. It was a big hit. Seriously everyone had a fun time taking swings at (or watching everyone else take swings at) the piñata.

At about 10pm I went back into the National Park with Jake and Meg to take pictures of the stars. It was a dark night with no moon so the stars were particularly beautiful. You could clearly see the clouds in the Milky Way. It was beautiful. It was very windy, which made the pictures fairly challenging.

On Sunday we got up fairly early and hiked the Fairyland loop. I loved this hike. This became Alison and my favorite hike in Bryce. We started at Sunrise Point and hiked down through the canyon. All along this hike, there were stunning views of red rock and hoodoos. We came back up out of the canyon at Fairyland Point. We completed the loop by hiking back to Sunrise Point along the Rim trail. In all, it was around 8 miles with lots of changing elevations throughout. It was challenging, but with our early start, it really was a pleasant hike. I would 100% do this hike again.

We came back to camp and it took us a little while to get breakfast going. After we ate Alison and I decided to head back to Red Canyon with Tex. This day we hiked the pink ledges trail. It was another short hike full of stunningly beautiful views. We loved Red Canyon and couldn't believe that more people weren't taking advantage of these accessible and beautiful trails.

We relaxed at camp for a while until it was time for dinner. Blake and Debbie put together a spread of brisket, mac and cheese, baked beans, and salad. It was an excellent and bountiful meal. After dinner, Alison and I took Tex on a walk around Bryce Canyon City. By the time we got back, it was getting dark. I helped Kristin wrap up her accounting homework, while Alison went with the rest of her family to look at the stars. It was a really enjoyable Sunday.

On Monday morning we woke up, broke camp, and drove home. We had a lot of fun hanging out at Bryce, but it is good to be home and to have a little time to relax before going back to work tomorrow.