Kodachrome

2025-09-09
Kodachrome Basin and Bryce Canyon UT

Today I left Goblin Valley heading for Bryce Canyon, which is pretty much 100 miles on one road. I stopped at a scenic view so you can see how you just go up the side of these mesas. This was nothing compared to the Dugway of course, but still interesting and pretty.

Along the way, my stretch break was Kodachrome Basin State Park. Go ahead and sing a few bars of the Paul Simon song; I'll wait.

I did a lovely 3.5 mile hike in the heat to look out over the beautiful Utah scenery. The park has plenty of camping and even has a laundromat which I considered using (and in hindsight should have). But in the end, it was just the hike for me as I continued on another half hour to Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon is I believe my 41st National Park. I actually booked a hotel room just outside the park for convenience, but I didn't realize what I was getting into. The place is called Ruby's, and they have two hotels - one for the elite and one for the rest of us. I think the elite had prices around $800/night. The lesser hotel (more of a motel with the rooms having outside doors) has maybe a dozen buildings with perhaps 50 or so rooms per building, so 600-800 rooms isn't a bad guess. They run closer to $200/night They also seem to own restaurants and tchotchke stands and so forth (unless all the businesses are just using the Ruby name as part of some agreement). The best comparison I can come up with is South of the Border but this has more rooms and fewer billboards. I can say that it feels busy and their laundromat is too small. Overall, the hotel is not that full today and I'm already a bit stressed by the crowds, so I can't imagine how it would be on a prime weekend.

Bryce Canyon is definitely the most crowded place I've been so far. It's on a different level than the other parks on this trip, and I haven't been to a popular National Park in a while so I forgot how they can be. At the previous stops, the other people were mostly retirees like me. There have also been a fair number of Germans on holiday as well as some elementary-aged kids with their families. A few other tourists from the Middle East or Italy round out the crowd. Here I've seen all of that, plus what appears to be a tour bus full of French people and more teenagers. I haven't heard the latter talk to pick up an accent. Then again I'm not sure if I'd understand teens in English either. I expect that if I pay more attention I will find it's a more diverse group.

I had to go into the park to see what it is like so I won't be surprised tomorrow when I try to hike early. I stopped at some of the viewpoints and took pictures because, well, I was there. Bryce Canyon is pretty amazing from the top. You can view individual hoodoos better from the bottom, but already I am wondering if it will really be prettier. Maybe at least more interesting.