Red Canyon (Bryce Part 1)

 It's been 3 years since we visited Bryce Canyon.  With Covid and everything, we really haven't gone too many places, so we decided over Labor Day weekend to visit Bryce again, since it's pretty close, less than 4 hours away.

We also visited Red Canyon State Park which is a lonely park - nobody visits it.  It's about 15 minutes before you get to Bryce and right where the rocks turn red and hoodoos start to appear.  Most people stop here, take a quick pic from their car, and then hurry on to Bryce.

Red Canyon is a free park and is a mini Bryce with some fantastic short and fairly easy hikes.  You get up close and personal with the rock formations at Red Canyon, and often, you will be the only ones on the trail.

Last time we were here, we did the "Arches Loop" trail and saw two other people.  This time, we did the Golden Wall / Castle Bridge Trail - a 2 mile loop.  We were the only ones there.

On the way you travel through some pretty desolate parts 

Suddenly, red rocks start to appear

Heading right into the sun, the pic is not that great....two rock tunnels

This is one of the views from the visitors center. There are a lot of people who stop to take a few pics, and then they move on.

We on the other hand, explore.  The trail started out pretty flat and normal through some brush and pine trees

Very quickly though, we saw the rock formations nobody else gets to see

The trail goes very close to the hoodoos and winds through them

Then we hit the switchbacks, climbing almost 700 feet in elevation with fantastic views every step of the way

Almost there!  Need to take a rest though

At the top the views were like this 360 degrees around!

One part of the trail was very skinny and on the edge..a little scary....this is why you don't bring your little kids on this hike

Can you see the trail winding through?

Another scary part on the edge of a huge dropoff. Just run fast and don't look down

This was the top....as you can see, there is nowhere to go

Hannah took about 27 selfies of us of course, since she had the phone

We finally found the trail again and the way down with the help of a small cairn we missed the first time looking around

Taking over for Jacob, Hannah had to go to the very edge and pose with her mom saying "HANNAH!  THAT'S TOO CLOSE"

And dad saying, "HANNAH!  WAIT! STAY THERE WHILE I GET A PIC"

Hannah had to go explore for Jacob since he wasn't here

We very much enjoyed our visit to Red Canyon again!  Nobody there, great short hikes and excellent scenery!