Day 3: Otter Creek Lake to Bryce Canyon

Despite some wind overnight, we passed the night relatively peacefully and watched the sun rise over the lake while eating a leisurely breakfast. We congratulated ourselves for a campsite well chosen as we passed by the state campground (Utah, we are not impressed with your state campgrounds!), but we did help ourselves to a water fill at a spigot in a private campground across the way. 

Sunrise!

We briefly chatted with a local in Antimony who warned us of cars going too fast on the curves. Ani asked asked him if it was pretty, and he responded "not sure if it's pretty, it hasn't rained since March." If you are passing through Antimony, just know the little store/cafe there is closed on Sundays. We climbed through golden fall leafed trees and the Black Rock Canyon, where we scared a bunch of cows nearly to death. 

The landscape hints of what is to come.

Most of the day was long, straight, and typical desert riding. It felt pretty desolate with none of the vibrant orange and golden rock formations we dreamed that was scattered across Utah. We saw promises of those views as the day wore on. And we kept expecting some gnarly headwind, but thankfully it mostly hit us at an angle and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. As we neared Bryce Canyon town, traffic got worse and as we were lamenting the prospect of a climb into Bryce with cars, a bike path magically appeared. We stopped off at the General Store to grab some beer [note: Utah is NOT taking COVID seriously, so while most patrons were wearing masks, none of the employees were] and we had a lovely ride into the park on a beautiful paved bike path. 

Bryce Canyon town resupply.

The most magical of bike paths.

We were also stoked to realize that people who bike into the park bypass the ranger station and so we did not have to pay the park fee. While the website says it it is $35 per car and $20 for people who bike and walk, there specifically were signs that routed us around the fee station and right to the area to get visitors information. We booked it to the first-come first-served campsite and had our choice of about 4 or 5 sites... which was incredibly lucky since we realized that yes, we had arrived on a Sunday, but it was a holiday weekend (Indigenous Peoples' Day)... whoops! No harm no foul.

Bikes for life.

We set up camp, enjoyed a quick beer, and then set out for a short exploration with the few hours of light we had left. We went to the oh so popular Sunrise Point, threw our masks on, and did a quick 3 mile loop before retiring for dinner.

So popular but so pretty!

The headstand returns.

Fun with shadows.

The temperatures dropped drastically as the sun set, so we had an early dinner of chicken soba noodles with shiitake mushrooms, and sesame topped off with hot chocolate and coconut macaroons. Since this night was supposed to be our coldest night, dropping to the 20s, we jumped into the tent early and poured over the maps to plan the next day.