We get started a little later than we hoped, just really needed the extra sleep after three straight days of hiking. We’re doing Fairyland Loop today, and it’s a long one, but we should be fine. We park near the welcome center and start on the Rim Trail overlooking the huge canyon of hoodoos and spires below. Doing this route should be about 8.2 miles with 2000’ of total vertical gain (a lot of ascents and descents, it adds up!). This gorge is rimmed with chessmen sentries around the perimeter looking on to a Cinderella’s Castle finished with diagonal stripes in orange and white.
The Rim Trail goes along some of the highest points in the park and supports a surprising amount of vegetation given the harsh rock substrate. The dominant yellow rabbitbrush flowers are accented by the occasional little purple Rock Columbine and the occasional Wyoming Paintbrush, a wispy red flower that looks like a tiny Bird of Paradise. Most surprising to me are the tall pines, whose roots somehow manage to gain enough purchase to support 50 and 60 foot growth. The most aspirational of these trees, the tallest ones at the highest elevations, can have no way of knowing that their ambition will ultimately be their demise. Virtually every one has become a literal lighting rod, showing signs of multiple strikes. I’m from the northeast, where the wet climate and associated bugs would make short work of these damaged stumps. But here in the dry climate, the deterioration is slowed to a glacial pace, allowing the remaining trunks and branches to morph into a new thing of beauty, twisted shafts of color and suggested motion. I become enamored with these beings and try my best to capture their stories with photos.
We turn right and drop into Fairy Basin. There are very few hikers on the trail, so it doesn’t take us long to feel like were thousands of miles from civilization, our water apparently Alice’s “Drink Me” potion, shrinking us so everything in our painted playground is towering over us.
We reach the pine forest on the canyon floor, the figures and peeking through the trees and change our Disney movie for the third time to Robin Hood, Maid Marion and I seeking adventure beneath the walled castle above all the while trying to avoid the watchful eyes of the king’s men staring down from all directions.
The sun is high and shade is precious but hard to come by, so this diversion took a bit of wind out of our sails. This was not made better when we returned to the correct trail to find our next major ascent. Fortunately, water, snacks and a bit of small talk with fellow travelers refueled our legs and spirits some. At the top of this peak we notice the Sphinx, looking down on us as majestically as her original counterpart in Egypt.
We drop down into the valley for the last time, but the heat and distance make us wish we had started earlier. By the time we finish we had completed 9.2 miles and just shy of 2300 feet of total elevation. It was beautiful and I’m glad we did it, but we are spent.
We head back to Ruby’s for lunch, then back to the room for a well-deserved nap. Laundry in Podunk is it’s own adventure, but we manage to get a few loads done before dinner. Mandy booked the Stone Hearth Grill, perhaps the best restaurant in 200 miles, months ago. Fortunately it’s just two miles from our place, a lovely B&B with cabins, treehouses, bungalows and of course, the restaurant. The staff was excellent, professional, friendly and helpful, and our waiter made excellent wine and food recommendations. We started with some citrus roasted heirloom carrots with a poblano vinaigrette, which, if I’m mentioning vegetables here, you know must have been incredible. My locally sourced steak was great, and Mandy’s pork chop was the single best we ever had. As a bonus, the huge property afforded us a spot in near complete darkness to stargaze again.
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