Twilight from Upper Inspiration Point
Sat, Sept 1st – Awake before dawn, made a nice pot of coffee. We wash up in the restrooms and walk to the Rim Trail toward Sunrise Pt where it soon meets the Fairyland Loop. We begin the descent into Bryce Canyon. On past visits, we loved hiking the Peekaboo/Navajo Loop. Getting down among the hoodoos is so amazing.
The morning is perfect and we start the Fairyland Loop just after sunrise. We want to get an early start to beat the heat and the afternoon thunderstorms. The Fairyland Loop will take us 8 miles around to our starting point at the campground.
We’ll also be dropping about 1000’ before we reach the lowest point and then up and out. We have lots of water and the wraps for lunch. We can take as long as we want for the hike and take as many pictures as we wish. Life is good and this is a moment to relish and remember.
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We easily make our way down the smooth gravel trail. The moon is still up but headed toward the western horizon as we are treated to strange views as we wind through ancient Bristlecone Pines.
The hoodoos on the east side of the trail are glowing with the morning sun reflecting off the ones on the west. There is a quality to the light that is unfamiliar and magical. There’s no doubt that the effort to be here now was worth it. Still the trail winds down and down.
Soon we reach the Tower Arch and take the little side trail to the viewing location. True to it’s name, the massive rock formation resembles the Tower Bridge. It also looks a bit like a medieval cathedral. Either way it is formidable and well worth the few steps off the main trail.
After the Tower Arch, the trail headed up for awhile and then wandered up and down with a general upward trend.
After we were on the trail for a couple of hours, we stopped and made an early lunch of our wrap from the day before. We hadn’t seen another soul since we’d left the campground. There wasn’t a sound except for the occasional flitting and chirping of the few birds that were about. Our little snack really hit the spot and we continued up the trail.
As the trail headed uphill again, we encountered our first hiker coming from the other direction. Since we were about half way, this made sense. We also noticed a pair of hikers catching up with us from behind. Our solitude was gone but the scenery was spectacular and we enjoyed new vistas as we reached the outermost point of the Fairyland Loop.