In April 2022, we headed south to find some warmer weather and explore two National Parks in Utah – Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon. We started with three days at Capitol Reef National Park. We camped a few miles outside the park on BLM land, where we had great views, even if it was a bit windy at times. And we did lots of great hikes in the park — Sunset Point, Capitol Gorge, Golden Throne, Hickman Bridge, and Rim Overlook.

When we left Capitol Reef, we drove Highway 12 to get to Bryce. What an amazing drive, especially when you drop down into Escalante Canyon! We set up camp outside Bryce at a dispersed site on Forest Service land and planned to hunker down for a day, as we knew bad weather was coming. After a day confined to camp, we woke up to an inch of wet snow and headed out to play tourist. We drove to Rainbow Point at the end of the Bryce Canyon Road and then stopped at every overlook on our way back to enjoy the views, many with fresh snow on the rock formations. Over the next few days, we did some great hikes in Bryce, including Fairyland Loop and a combination of Queen’s Garden, Peek-a-boo Loop, and Navajo Loop. Bryce is amazing and definitely my favorite park in Utah!

We also explored a few areas outside of Bryce while we were in the area. We drove down to Kodachrome Basin State Park, so that we could do a hike with Cato. And we explored Red Canyon, with Sue doing a short hike with Cato while I did an awesome mountain bike ride called Thunder Mountain. One of my favorite rides of all time!