I was at the highest point in Bryce Canyon National Park. There are actually two viewpoints here: Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point which more or less give a look at more of the area here. While the hoodoos aren’t as nice here, we still can get a great view of the area since it is so high up. The clear skies also help to see far away. What I didn’t know was that you can see Navajo Mountain which is a sacred mountain to the Navajo. The mountain is actually in the next state in Arizona, it just shows how good the viewing conditions were.

I was still walking about in the area when I noticed that there was a short hike I can do here. The Bristlecone Loop is a short loop around this area. At least I can claim that I still hiked here in Bryce Canyon and not just drove around. As the name implies, Bristlecone Loop is a short trail which goes through some bristlecone pines. These trees are very hardy considering that they can survive in these types of conditions. It should not come as a surprise that the oldest individual tree is a bristlecone pine. That specific tree’s location is a closely guarded secret though, so I can’t tell I am actually walking beside the oldest living tree in the world. Indeed the bristlecone pines are very long lived, though I don’t know how long these specific bristlecone pines have been alive here in Bryce Canyon National Park. While I considered this area to be desert, I wasn’t expecting there to be pines like these here.

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