We spent a little time in the tent playing games getting ready to brave the cold morning.
The snow continued through the morning and into the afternoon. We got about 4" at our campsite and about 7" at the higher elevations of Bryce Canyon.
Once we got brave enough to leave the tent (which wasn't warm if you got our of your sleeping bag), we cleaned off the tent and then had breakfast in the warm car.
We drove over to Sunrise Point to check out the hoodoos in the snow and take a few pictures.
With the snow getting heavy again, it was hard to get good pictures! Plus my lens kept fogging up!
We knew before leaving for our trip that there was a chance of snow. But we were already flying with a lot of gear and didn't want to pack another whole bag of snow gear (it was hard enough carrying all our other duffels and the kid carrier through the airport!). So we had to make due with lots and lots of layers and raincoats as the outer layer to stay dry.
Since we didn't have awesome hiking attire, we decided to drive through the park and stop at some view points.
Natural Bridge overlook was pretty awesome (when the snow slowed down enough to see it!). It's really hard to tell in these pictures but it's massive (85 ft tall).
It was pretty much impossible to see anything!
On our way back down through the park, Gray had had enough!
And the snow just kept coming!
You may have noticed I was taking pictures from the back seat. By this point in the trip I was sitting in the back between Gray and Rylan while Carter sat in the front seat. There was no more fighting and driving was so much more pleasant!
We stopped by our campsite and cleaned off the tent again (snow is heavy!). Then we ate lunch in the car again - we shared hummus, pretzel chips, and fruit.
Then we went to the visitors center to finish the boys Junior Ranger booklets. We went through the exhibits and watched a film about the park.
The snow was finally slowing down so we decided to do a hike. We parked at the General Store near Sunrise Point and hiked the Rim Trail north. While at the visitors center we learned about a program called "I Hiked the Hoodoos" challenge. To complete it, you have to hike at least 3 miles on specific trails and take pictures at 3 benchmarks. So our goal was to reach one of those benchmarks. Goals are always good to keep the boys going!
The hike was very muddy (and cold) but beautiful!
We made it to a benchmark!
We decided with the weather that it would be a good day to eat dinner out. We drove over to Tropic (only about 10 minutes from the entrance of the park) and had dinner at Pizza Place. The pizza was so good and we had way more than we could eat. Brian and I got the chicken bacon ranch and the boys got a cheese pizza. We were so stuffed that we decided to do a short hike before heading back to camp.
Closes to Tropic is a hike that is part of Bryce Canyon NP (but not behind the entrance gate). Mossy Cave Trail is off of Highway 12 and is a short hike to a cave and waterfall. We probably did about 1.5 miles round trip.
This hike was at a lower elevation so it was a little warmer and there was no snow.
The hike followed this water to the waterfall.
There were a few cool arches along the way.
We were also able to get another benchmark for the "I Hiked the Hoodoos" challenge!
The waterfall ...
The arches from the other side of them ...
The view from the top of the waterfall back toward the trailhead.
And upstream of the waterfall ...
The cave (we weren't overly impressed). This is a natural spring and the icicles are supposedly impressive in the winter.
This was a great easy hike to end our day!
We headed back to camp for one more cold night. Luckily we figured out how to stay a little warmer each night!
