So, this was our very first National Park trip, and first vacay together.
It was our 7th anniversary, and we decided our gift would be the trip. To prepare, we had to buy hiking boots, bladder packs, first aid kit, and new outfits of course. After a long debate, we also got a Go Pro to document our travels.
We began by driving straight to Bryce Canyon National Park and doing the scenic drive. In my opinion, you can see everything there is from this scenic drive without doing any of the hikes. As there are many stopping points, aka look-outs to see the canyon formations. Afterwards, we checked into our hotel at a neighboring town, Tropic, UT because the prices were so much cheaper than staying any closer to the park. Its only about a half hour away. We ate at The Pizza Place for dinner, which was just walking distance from the hotel. It was good, not super memorable though. We then tucked ourselves in late that night for our first ever big hike.
We awoke about 8 am and walked to get coffee at Bryce Canyon Coffee Co (if you ever go, they have amazing cappuccinos, we went back for more before leaving the next day). We ate breakfast, Jimmy Dean egg cups, which were also very good, we have continued to buy them for our hikes now. We pulled into the park around 11 am to start our hike.
We did the Wall Street and Queen Gardens Loop to Peekaboo Loop. This is a 6.3-mile hike with elevation gain of about 1,500 ft (keep in mind that Bryce Canyon is at about 7,700 ft above sea level already) that is ranked moderate on the All-Trails app. I was pretty nervous to start because this was our first ever long hike, while it wasn’t a hot day it was sunny. I was worrying about drinking enough water but not too much that’d I’d have to use the restroom, that the egg cup and coffee combo wouldn’t agree with me, and that the difficulty of the hike would be too hard for a beginner. While it was difficult at times, I was fine, and everything went great! In total the hike took us 4.5 hours.
Since it was our 7th anniversary, we went to the nicest steak house nearby. It is called Stone Hearthe Grill, this meal was amazing. We started with French onion soup and Cesar salad. Then we shared the freshwater lobster and ribeye with a side of mac and cheese. For dessert, we had the chocolate mousse.
The next morning, we woke up early for sunrise at Inspiration point. Easily our favorite place at Bryce Canyon. While the sunrise was cloudy, it was still a beautiful view and a perfect ending to our first of many national park trips.