Bryce Canyon; Mossy Cave Trail – Wintertime

The first thing I wanted to do while at Bryce Canyon was check out the Mossy Cave trail. I recently heard about it and it seemed pretty cool. Plus, bonus waterfall. Mossy Cave Trail, while technically in Bryce Canyon is not on the main road past the ranger gate. Instead (from Bryce Canyon City) you need to go back north up 63 and hang a right on highway 12 follow that about 3 miles and you will see a small parking lot with a pit toilet on the right. If you hit Tropic you went too far.

From the trailhead. There are some cool hoodoos already.

Only .4 miles shouldn’t take us more than a half hour or so.

This is a really neat little trail.

A couple small windows.

And here we have reached the creek that we will be crossing shortly.

Huh. Not much water in there. Guess the waterfall isn’t going to be too impressive today.

And the view back down.

Pink water.

A closer look at one of those windows.

Another bridge next to a small side stream that I guess might just be runoff. Looking back it might be part runoff, and part what comes out of Mossy Cave.

View upstream from the bridge.

And there is the waterfall I was after. Darn. Pictures I have seen show a really cool little waterfall, but it is barely a trickle here in the winter time. Meh, still cool.

Neat rock formation.

Now the trail goes from fairly flat to uphill. It’s not too steep though.

And a little further up the trail splits. We decided to start with the cave. It is not much further from here.

Oooh.

This is really neat! After playing in a man made ice castle a few weeks ago, I now get to see a natural ice cave.

According to the little kiosk the cave is sheltered from the sun and sometimes the ice lasts through June!  During the summer months it is just a mossy cave. I am sure that is pretty cool too, but the ice is really cool!

Close up of the ice column.

From as far back as I could get.

I thought this was pretty cool and definitely worth the short hike to see. Now we decided to head back down and see the waterfall.

View back down the canyon.

Not far past the trail split is the main view point. Yea, not much to look at at the moment.

This would make a great shot when the water is running at full force. It’s not too shabby now, but that would be neat.

Some of the hoodoos above.

Oh darn, I thought you could go to the top of the falls. I can see why it is closed though. If the picture isn’t clear some of the trail has broken away into the canyon below.

My disappointment was quickly relieved when I noticed an alternate trail just 5 feet to the left.

You cross a small side stream.

You get a much better view of the windows from back here. Looks like that last one on the right won’t last much longer.

The waterfall. I really like all the colors in the layers of rick here.

There is a trail up to the windows. I didn’t particularly feel up to scrambling up it today.

View from the top of the waterfall. You can see the bridge just before the trail split so it really isn’t that far.

And the view upstream. It doesn’t appear to be an official trail, but there is a thin trail further up. We opted not to do that either as we wanted to get into the park proper today because the weather is supposed to turn tomorrow.

A look at the mostly dry stream bed and the formations above.

View up the other side.

Ok we had our fun, it is time to start heading back.

View downstream from the upper bridge.

Another little alcove in the side of the canyon.

Some hoodoos. As seen from the lower bridge.

From a little further down.

Further still.

It’s wintertime so the trail is a bit muddy in quite a few sections.

And a view up SB12 from the trailhead.

I am really glad with did this little side adventure today. It was completely new to me even though I have been to Bryce Canyon several times in my life. It had everything. Nice forests, pretty hoodoos, a stream, a waterfall, and a really neat ice cave! (or a moss cave in the summer), I definitely recommend it as a quick and easy side adventure if you are in the area. It is only 7 minutes from Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City so it’s not like it is out of the way at all.

10 Squirrels! Even with the disappointingly drizzle of a waterfall.

As for difficulty, the park guide says this is an easy trail that is great for children and seniors. I would definitely agree. It is mostly flat with a short somewhat steep section to reach the cave, or the waterfall but both of those are less than 1/10th of a mile. The trail says .4 to Mossy Cave, I am not sure if that is just that, or .4 to the split then a smidge more for either point of interest but either way, you are doing less than a mile total. Definitely a DR3.