Exit78 Photo of the Day #133
Mossy Cave Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, October 8, 2015 (Pentax K-3 II)
Mossy Cave Trail (Utah.com)
The Mossy Cave Trail in the northern end of Bryce Canyon National Park offers hikers the chance to experience up close the hoodoos and spires of the park without having to descend 1,000 feet to the bottom of the amphitheaters. This trail follows a stream that leads to a natural grotto, a shelter cave that looms protectively over the trail, bearing ice sickles in the winter and lichen and moss in the warmer seasons.
Trail Head: 37.666277, -112.10997
Trail Type: Hiking
Length: 1 mile round trip
Difficulty: EasyUnlike the majority of the hikes within Bryce Canyon, this trail is not reached by turning south onto Highway 63. Visitors coming in from the west will pass that highway, and the main park entrance, and will instead continue for 4 miles as if they were en route to Tropic.
Mossy Cave Trailhead
The stream was artificially created by pioneers who needed to find an irrigation source for the towns of Tropic and Cannonville. The ‘Tropic Ditch’ has changed the geology along its course, creating an actual erosion-canyon, as opposed to the rest of the park’s canyons formed from frost-wedging.
Fork in the Trail
The trail forks just over a quarter of a mile in.
Right Fork (Waterfall)
This fork of the trail heads north, following the stream until it dead ends at a small waterfall.
Left Fork (Mossy Cave)
The left fork of Mossy Cave Trail swings southwest until it reaches the cave.
(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)
Series notes:
- The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
- Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.
