Zion and Bryce Canyon

For my 34th birthday, I went to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks with my two best friends from college. Needless to say, I had an awesome birthday.

I first visited Zion National Park in April 2016, and I hiked Angels Landing. It was an incredible experience, but I missed out on the Narrows, which was closed due to heavy runoff. I knew I had to go back, and I was lucky enough to share the experience with my closest friends.

As usual, preparations began months in advance of the trip. I wanted to stay at the lodges inside the parks, so I booked them in March or April of this year (for October dates). We had three nights in Zion and one night in Bryce.

We arrived to Zion on a Monday evening around dusk, and a mob of mule deer was grazing on the front lawn of Zion Lodge. After checking into our room, we went to Zion Outfitter (just outside the park entrance) to rent our equipment for the Narrows. Based on the latest water report, we decided to rent the bib package ($48), which included canyoneering shoes, neoprene socks, and a walking stick. The bib was like waterproof overalls, which was a step above the waterproof pants. The employee at the outfitter suggested that we start hiking as early in the day as possible to avoid the heaviest crowds.

The next morning, we arrived to the Temple of Sinawava, the starting point for the Narrows hike, around 9am, and there were many adventurers already there. We "plunged" right in and started hiking upstream. The water flow rate was about 50 CFS (cubic feet per second), which was comfortable to walk in. The Narrows are not recommended when the flow rate is over 100 CFS or when there is a good chance of flash floods, and they close when the flow rate is over 150 CFS.

We hiked about 2.5 miles to the beginning of Wall Street, but instead of continuing through Wall Street, we opted to take a side trail up Orderville canyon, which ended up being an adventurous choice. We climbed up several waterfalls and only turned around when we couldn't find a way to continue. We returned to the trailhead the same way we came, but it was noticeably easier walking downstream.

In the end, we were in the Narrows for four hours, and this was a good amount of time for me. I could feel that my legs were tired toward the end of the hike, and I may have made more missteps if we had gone further into the canyon and had longer to hike back out. We were also happy with the equipment we rented. The level of the 60-degree water varied between ankle-deep to waist deep, but we were very comfortable in our dry "overalls."

Walking into Wall Street in the Zion Narrows

The next day, we hiked the Observation Point trail, an 8-mile out-and-back trail with a 2000+ feet in elevation gain. We arrived to the trailhead at Weeping Rock around 9am, and we beat most of the crowd. This was a strenuous hike with an unrelenting uphill climb. My favorite part of the trail was the pass through Echo Canyon, which was relatively flat and had close canyon walls like slot canyons. This was like the "halftime show" for a game full of switchbacks.

We reached the top of Observation Point in about two and a half hours, and we enjoyed our lunch with some views. Our hike back down took about one and a half hours, and we were done by one o'clock in the afternoon.

View from Observation Point

On our last morning in Zion, it rained. We decided to grab a quick breakfast in town (Cafe Soleil!) and then head to Bryce Canyon. We arrived to Bryce Canyon in the early afternoon, and the rain was just letting up. The visitor center was filled with soggy sightseers, but we were able to get some recommendations from a ranger, and we were on our way.

We took the free park shuttle to Bryce Point, the southern-most stop on the shuttle. From there, we walked along the Rim Trail back up to Sunrise Point, where we entered the canyon on the Queens Garden Trail. We came back on the Navajo Loop Trail, and we ended our day's hike in the Wall Street of Bryce Canyon.

View from Bryce Point

The hiking trails in Bryce Canyon were opposite of those in Zion in that they started at the highest elevation and began with the descent (and ended with steep uphill climbs). For example, the last stretch of the Navajo Loop Trail through Wall Street ended with dozens of switchbacks.

The next morning (our last day of the trip), we drove to a few of the scenic overlooks in the southern half of the park, where the shuttle doesn't go (Rainbow Point, Natural Bridge). On our way out of the park, we stopped at Fairyland Point, and our last hike was the Mossy Cave trail, which was short and sweet.

Overall, I could not have asked for a better trip. I did three epic hikes that kicked my butt, and I discovered the awesome beauty of Bryce Canyon National Park. If I ever go back to these parks, I will be sure to hike the Fairyland Loop (in Bryce) and try to get further up Wall Street in the Narrows (in Zion).

Some tips:

• Zion has free shuttle system that run throughout the main road in the park. Especially in Zion, parking inside the park is extremely limited, and you should plan to park outside the park in the town of Springdale and take the shuttle system into the park. This is unless you are staying at the Zion Lodge, in which case you get a special pass to park at the lodge. 
• Bryce also has a free shuttle system, and it goes to most of the main road in the park. The difference is that you don't need a special pass to drive on this road, so if you want to go to some of the less-visted point in the southern half of the park, you can drive there on your own.
• The Zion Narrows is a hike up a river. If you have a waterproof case for your phone, bring it along. I just used a plastic Zip-loc bag, and I didn't have any problems.
• Also for the Narrows... unless you are advanced in walking in water on slippery rocks, I recommend you rent the special equipment from the outfitter.
• If you are looking for blended coffee drinks (or chai) in Springdale, Cafe Soleil is the spot!

Devil's Lake State Park

Earlier this month, I went to Devil's Lake State Park, the crown jewel of the Wisconsin State Park system. It is the most popular state park, and it is also the largest in size. Steep trails go up and down the bluffs that surround the east and west sides of the lake, with sand beaches on the north and south sides. I also stopped by Palfrey's Glen, a small natural area with one main trail and plenty of gorgeous views. More on that at the bottom.

I knew about Devil's Lake because it was always on the lists of "best hiking areas near Chicago," but it always felt just a bit too far away for me to go as a day trip from Chicago. But I was in Madison, Wisconsin for a few days, and Devil's Lake was a great day trip option from there. My friend had been there just a couple weeks beforehand, so I got a lot of good tips before going there myself. He said the south parking lot was less busy than the north parking lot, so that's where we went, and that's where we started our hike.

From the south parking lot, we headed in a counter-clockwise direction around lake, starting with the Balanced Rock Trail. This trail seemed to go straight up, as it was just stone cut into stair-steps up to the top of the east bluff. Since we had just started hiking, our legs were fresh, so we made good time. Too good in fact - we were going so fast that we missed the main point of interest on this trail, Balanced Rock. There was a spot where the trail came to a slight landing area on some rocks, and there were a lot of people standing around in that area. That was probably where Balanced Rock was, but we didn't see it, so we just kept going up, haha. Soon, we came to the junction with East Bluff Trail, and we did a spur trail to the Devil's Doorway. This was a pretty cool rock formation (see below).

Devil's Doorway

 After seeing Devil's Doorway, we headed back to the East Bluff Trail and we made our way north along the lake. Once we were on top of the bluff, there wasn't a lot of up and down, and it was an easy-going hike with some great views from above the lake. Soon enough, we descended down from the bluff to the beach on the north side of the lake.

North Beach

The north side is where the visitor center, cafe, and gift shop are. You can also rent kayaks and paddle boards. The south side also had a boat concession, but only a small food stand, and no visitor center. I had decided to park on the south side so that we could get lunch on the north side in the middle of our day, and this worked out perfectly. The north side seemed crowded and noisy around the lunch hour, compared to a quieter, more low-key south side beach.

After lunch, we headed back on the trail, and we hiked the West Bluff Trail back to the south side of the lake. We had one more strenuous climb up to the top of the west bluff, and then another descent back down to the lake on the south side. The hike finished with an easy walk along the water on the south side of the lake, and we could see a lot of fish swimming around in the water.

View from West Bluff Trail

After we finished the loop around the lake, Austin decided he wanted to hike the Potholes Trail. This was partly my fault because I thought there were some interesting geological features along the trail, but there weren't. The trail was straight up again, just like the Balanced Rock Trail, and I was out of steam. Austin made it all the way to the top, but I did not. I took my time and made it up about halfway before he came back down to meet up with me. There was a cool bit of the trail that went through a slot in the side of the canyon. But at this point in the day, I was too tired to be hiking up (or down) a steep, rocky trail.

Before we left the park, we stopped by Palfrey's Glen State Natural Area, which was just to the east of Devil's Lake. This was a small but beautiful area with a short trail that followed a stream into the glen. My friend had recommended it, and I'm glad we stopped by. It took less than an hour to hike the whole trail out and back, and it was really enjoyable. There was some river-crossings with less-than-stable rock placement, but it was doable, especially with a pair of water-proof hiking boots.

Palfrey's Glen

I walked a total of 30,000 steps and 105 floors the day I went to Devil's Lake and Palfrey's Glen. It was not a easy day of hiking, but it was beautiful and enjoyable.

Since Devil's Lake is almost four hours away from Chicago, I would not recommend it as a day trip from Chicago. If you are able to reserve a campsite in advance, you could go for a weekend and spend some time hiking and also some time in the water. Otherwise, it would be a great day trip from either Madison (1 hour drive) or Milwaukee (2 hour drive).

I am looking forward to getting to know more units in the Wisconsin State Park system. Devil's Lake was a great way to start.

2017 NPS Visitor Use Statistics

As usual, the National Park Service published visitor use statistics for all of 2017 in early February. And I went on a bit of a data bender... I made some charts that illustrate interesting changes (and anomalies) in the number of recreation visitors in select national parks. Enjoy!

Superbloom in Death Valley National Park

I published this chart after the end of 2016, but I thought it was worth re-visiting. Due to a superbloom of wildflowers caused by heavy winter rains, visitation in Death Valley National Park in March 2016 doubled! Attendance returned to normal in March 2017. In August 2017, there was an increase in attendance, and I am not sure, but I am wondering if the solar eclipse had anything to do with it.

Ice Sea Caves in Apostle Islands National Park

Here, we see massive visitation spikes in February and March of 2014. I had no idea why this happened, and I even thought that it might be a data entry error, but then I did a quick Google search, and I found out that in late winter that year, the iced-over sea caves in the park, which are usually only accessible by boat over the summers, became accessible by foot - the shoreline had frozen enough to allow people to walk to the caves!

Government Shutdown and Cuyahoga Valley National Park

In contrast to the earlier spikes, Cuyahoga Valley saw a major dip in visitors in October 2013. I had to look this one up too, but when I found the relevant article, I remembered that this was the most recent government shutdown before 2018. The park was closed for about half of October, typically their last busy month of the year.

Yosemite National Park Visitation Drops 14% in 2017

The reason I started looking at this data in the first place is because I saw that the number of recreation visitors for Yosemite National Park, the fifth most-visited national park in the system, had decreased by 14% from 2016 to 2017. This seemed unexpected to me, but then I realized that the success of the Find Your Park campaign in 2016 had not carried over, and 2017 visitation had returned closer to 2015 levels. The Find Your Park Campaign caused Yosemite's visitation to increase 21% from 2015 to 2016. So seeing a 14% drop from 2016 to 2017 makes more sense after that. Compared to 2015, 2017 visitation is up about 4%.

Joshua Tree National Park Visitation Doubles in Five Years

Something has been going on in Joshua Tree National Park, and I don't know exactly what it is. The park has seen double-digit increases in visitation for the past four years, and this trend has caused annual visitation to double in a relatively short amount of time. I took a closer look at monthly data to see if there was a particular season that was causing the abrupt change, but there wasn't - more and more people are just finding out about the accessibility (and magic) Joshua Tree. The park is less than a three hour drive from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas, and I'm just surprised that it took people this long to figure out how awesome and unique it is. I just hope that the park (and the surrounding community) can handle the influx of visitors and that all the visitors treat the park with respect. Leave no trace!