Bryce Canyon was our final National Park of this Utah trip. In late April during our visit there was still considerable snow in the park, so much so that about half the main road was closed to traffic and a substantial number of the trails as well. Outside of the main entrance to the park there is a small side entrance that goes to Mossy Cave and the small waterfall seen here.

There are quite a few of the hoodoos that the park is famous for visible from this little piece of the park as well, and if you just happen to be passing though - there is no admission fee for this section.

Back along the main park road, this is Natural Bridge, which was as far into the park as we could go during our visit. The un-inventive name here is actually appropriate because while this natural bridge has its own parking area and overlook there are actually hundreds of natural bridges all over the park.

Take this view for instance. Arches, windows, and natural bridges galore.

Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon at all. Most of the park is a high ridge line and the park road follows this. All of the services (the lodge, and visitor center and campground) are located up on the ridge. The 'canyon' portion is an amphitheater that opens out towards the east and you can actually hike from Bryce downhill all the way down to 'town', where the town in question is Tropic.

Here's the beginning of one of those trails. This one (Queen's Garden) was the only open trail going down off the ridge during our visit. Unsurprisingly, these trails are very steep at the top so plan for a difficult climb at the end of any hike coming back up to the park road.

It's worth taking the trails down just to be in amongst the rock formations. This was our favorite part of the park even if you do have to visit it all armed with the knowledge that you eventually have to climb back up to the top.

The trails wind through impressive rock formations and go through narrow passes in them. In several cases there are arch entrances through rock walls like this one. If you get unlucky there can be instagram photo sessions going on in the arch and it becomes a major traffic jam.

Sadly, Navajo Loop and Wall Street were closed due to snow so we could not hike through that part of the park. We also didn't even make it to Zion on this trip though so there's likely another Utah park trip in our future.