Bryce Canyon, Day 1! Fairytale Loop – February 18, 2023
Day One: Hiking Fairytale Loop
We spent President’s Day weekend in Bryce Canyon and it was INCREDIBLE! It’s been a very snowy winter here in Utah and Bryce had gotten a bunch of snow the week prior to our trip, so our hikes were definitely an adventure! We hiked Fairytale Loop (8 miles) and Queens Garden Trail/Peekaboo Loop (parts of the trail were closed so we ended up doing about 5 miles, along the Queens Garden part of the trail) and went to the Bryce Point lookout – an absolutely breathtaking view of the park! Both hikes are rated as moderate on AllTrails, in non-snowy season; each had around 1500 feet of elevation gain – but were tougher at this time of year, especially Fairytale Loop! We should have listened to the recent AllTrails reviews, all of which recommended snow shoes!!
It was a busy weekend there due to the Presidents Day holiday but we were able to snag a room at the Best Western, 10 minutes from the park (soo nice to be staying so close to the park!). Many restaurants in the area are closed at this time of year but we found a great barbecue spot, IDK Barbecue – it was the perfect post-hike food!
We also stopped at The Creamery in Beaver on our way there and our way home – a must!! The short rib grilled cheese was to die for and the ice cream was fantastic (everything we tried was good but the lemon bar was my favorite!!).
About Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon is home to the greatest concentration of hoodoo’s on this planet – very other worldly and unique. Hoodoos are incredible rock formations that are very rare and only seen in a few parts of the world. Bryce Canyon’s high elevation (8000 feet) means that it constantly goes through huge temperature swings and has around 200 days a year where the temperature will be both above freeze and below freezing, causing the rocks to erode. Hoodoos take millions of years of erosion and weathering to form.
Fairytale Loop
Fairytale Loop was a very adventurous hike and the snowiest hike I’ve ever done! The snow was thigh-high for about 3 of the 8 miles of the hike; snow shoes would have helped but we all just had hiking boots. Hiking poles were very useful because we post-holed pretty much nonstop for those 3 miles! It took us about 6 hours and we didn’t see anyone until the last few miles when we passed a few people on snow shoes and skis! It was pretty incredible being the only ones out there. The views were stunning and we had a gorgeous day – the high was around 33 degrees and sunny.
The two photos below are from our lunch spot, which of course had beautiful views! And to everyone’s amusement, I wrapped myself in a disposable thermal blanket (it was cold!!! At least to me 😅). My hiking shoes were meant for Grand Canyon type hikes and are not waterproof at all, so my feet, socks and shoes were completely soaked. Luckily I had a second pair of socks and wrapped a plastic poncho over my socks for the second half of the hike which helped them to stay a bit more dry…but still ended up with wet feet at the end 🙂
We enjoyed the hot tub at the hotel afterwards, followed by a delicious dinner at IDK Barbecue and played games in our room before crashing! I think working out in cold weather always feels pretty tough and hiking through that deep snow was intense!
Pictures don’t do the snow any justice … the picture here on the right was me sinking into about 3 feet of snow!
