Hiking in Bryce Canyon

We had decided to go to Bryce Canyon to see what we could make of our hiking plans. The only snow we saw were some small shimmering crystals but nothing on the road. As soon as we started the climb to the canyon there was snow on the road and we were glad to have four seasons tires. Having experienced how slippery snow can get in a flat country and not having any experience in driving snowy hills made us very cautious. But the Nissan proved not only to be muscle car to climb any desert mountain without sweat, she can be very gentle and forgiving in the snow.

Our first stop was at Sunrise viewpoint. It was still snowing a little bit. The thermometer dropped to 14 Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius) and the wind was stormy at at least 7 Beaufort. You don't want to leave the nice and warm Nissan, but we did leave the car and got some pictures and frozen ears and hands.

We drove on through the canyon and came across some very nice views with eventually a little more sun but still getting out meant getting body parts frozen. At the last viewpoint we noticed that we were on our highest altitude at 9115 feet (2778 meters) since the start of our trip. This viewpoint gave an overview of a large part of the canyon and, how much can a man take, yet another breath taking view. You can walk out on a fenced cliff, so only attached to a three meter wide part of sandstone you have a almost 360 degree down fall with is hundreds of meters deep. Nice place to remember Bryce Canyon by.

Along the way we passed some snow plows and those are not the only hazards in Bryce Canyon. At the previous viewpoint were warnings about brown bears an mountain lions (Cougars) and how to behave in an encounter.
We went back to the hotel and the manager had a interesting idea for a nice drive to other sceneries but we decided to hang around the hotel room for the rest of the afternoon.