October 1, 2026
On our second day at Bryce Canyon, we rented E-bikes and rode through the forest to The Lodge at Bryce Canyon, the only lodging in the park itself. It is a beautiful old lodge surrounded by historic cabins made of stone.
The small scrubby tree next to Lauren in the next photo may look young but, in fact, is likely hundreds of years old. It is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (pinus longaeva), one of the longest-living tree species on Earth with some over 4,000 years old. These remarkable trees can survive centuries of drought because they grow extremely slowly, have dense, resinous wood, and can remain alive even when much of their trunk has died.
On our way out of the park, we stopped in nearby Red Canyon and went for a brief hike along the Cassidy Trail. It is named after Butch Cassidy, the famous outlaw who reportedly used the area’s rugged terrain as a hideout. Some of our older readers may remember the classic 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid.
