The Quick and Dirty:
Location: Peek-a-Boo Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park
Distance: 5.5 miles round trip
Terrain Type: Well marked trail within the National Park. We made it through the entire hike even during a snow storm.
Difficulty:  Easy to moderate with some elevation gain
Best Time: Year round
Duration: 3 hours during a snow storm, I anticiapte the hike would be much less in clear weather conditions

I love Bryce Canyon National Park in the winter, especially when its covered with a thick layer of fresh snow. The color contrast between the red rocks and white snow gives the national park such a dramatic look. Every time I see it, it makes my heart skip a beat. It’s one of my favorite places in the whole world.

We hiked the Peek-a-Boo trail in late December on the last day of our winter vacation. When we arrived inside the national park, the snow really started coming down. They were huge, fluffy snow flakes we don’t see often living in Southern California. We couldn’t believe how the weather changed from this

to this, within a couple of days!

The first mile of the Peak-a-Boo trail is a straight descend into the canyon. To our delight, we noticed we were not the first ones on the trail. A group in front of us cleared a good portion of the trail for us, making it much easier for us to tread through the rapid falling snow. By mid morning, the snow were falling down at a rapid enough speed to cover our tracks within an hour!

When we arrived at the bottom of the canyon, the snow subsided as we hid under the tree covers. We thanked the group of hikers who cleared the trail for us as we passed them half-way through the hike and returned the favor by clearing 6-inches of snow for the rest of the loop.

Looking down towards the bottom of the canyon.

The last mile of the hike uphill to the parking lot was tough. Louis broke his microspikes and the with the weather turning for the worse, we decided to head back to Ruby’s Inn. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our vacation in Southern Utah.