Monday, November 09, 2009

Postcard from Bryce – The Mossy Cave Trail




The trail to Mossy Cave lies a few miles away from the main Bryce Highway. In fact, you leave the park boundaries, rejoin Highway 12, then head east towards the small town of Tropic (this is the town visible from some of the viewpoints in Bryce). You quickly start descending down the mountain. About halfway down to Tropic, you come to a trailhead that is the Mossy Cave Trail.

At this point, you are looking up to some of the beautiful formations in the northern part of Bryce (and you are back inside the park again). The Mossy Cave trail is a 1/2 mile uphill trail that take you to, surprise, Mossy Cave. The interesting part of this excursion not the cave itself…but rather the scenery along the way. In fact I am not even going to show you a photo of it as it is not really a cave, but a large area under a big rock that has been carved out by nature…and, oh yes, has some moss and moister in it. It is interesting, but not very photogenic.

No, it is the scenery along the way the makes this trail well worth the trip. You will see arches (photo #1), a waterfall (photo #2) and other very beautiful scenery carved out by nature. This is the only place in the park where you will see water, even though water plays a major part in the formation of Bryce itself.

If you ever go to Bryce, be sure not to miss this little side trip. As, I said, the scenery is spectacular. And you will be looking up at Bryce, not down like you do in the rest of the park.

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