HDT Day 33: Bryce Canyon NP

Daily Miles: 24.0, Total Miles: 450.1

I departed Tropic at 5:30am wanting to get a head start on the weather I knew was coming. The sun was just coming up when I reached the Bryce Canyon NP boundary.

I didn’t need a backcountry permit so saved a few miles not having to stop at the Visitors Center. That meant I needed to make enough miles today to cross over to the Grand View Trail to camp just outside the park southern boundary.

The morning on Bryce Canyon’s Peekaboo Trail and the Under the Rim Trail was clear, crisp and beautiful. Never get tired of those colorful hoodoos! Aside from a few earlybird hikers near Bryce Point, I felt like I had the whole park to myself. Very cool!

As I got further south past Yellow and Sheep Creek, a dark bank of clouds was moving in. About that time, I ran into two hikers I met on my very first day on the HDT, Happy Feet and Gary, on their last day of a long HDT section hike. Congrats!

By Swamp Creek, I was getting rain and slowed down by last year’s fire damage and downed timber. The last section of the Under the Rim Trail was flagged as closed but I didn’t want to backtrack at this point. Clearly not maintained, but passable.

Just as I connected to the Grand View Trail, a hailstorm started. I put on my rain jacket and began looking for a campsite. After a few intense minutes, the hail stopped so I continued on for a few miles before reaching very silty Willis Creek.

Still early but I went farther than planned today. I barely got everything into the tent before the rains really started.