Bryce Canyon snow activities should be an all-day destination

It's a rare moment when a city dweller can experience almost total silence, but it's yours in the snow-filled forests of winter in Bryce Canyon National Park. There, the only sound you'll hear is the whisper-quiet healing of your own soul.

Nor is solitude the only pleasure the park affords; at any time of year, standing on the rim of Paunsaugunt Plateau, overlooking vast amphitheaters filled with tall pillars of stone called hoodoos, is one of nature's most inspiring sights. In winter, the background of white snow makes the landscape's rich colors - mostly red, orange and pink limestone and the evergreen of trees - seem even more vivid and beautiful.

While most visitors enjoy this park via a self-guided 18-mile driving tour, I strongly recommend a winter hike, perhaps by snowshoe or cross-country ski, as an even better way to enjoy this place.

If you plan to hike the trails, be sure to have good hiking boots with some sort of traction device attached such as Yaktrax, Kako ICEtrekkers or STABILicers. They are available at many local sporting goods stores in Southern Nevada and also at the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center. The trails there are steep and often icy, so it is well worth taking your trekking poles and other equipment you might not usually use. Besides layers of warm, noncotton clothing, always pack a headlamp and some extra snacks in case you get caught out in darkness.

If you decide to ski but didn't bring your own equipment, it can be rented at Ruby's Inn Winter Activity Center, located just before the park's main entrance.

Prices are $15 for adults for a full day or $10 for children.

You can head off directly from the center on more than 30 kilometers of groomed trails, or choose your own route and head into the forest of firs, spruce and ponderosas. Of course, you can also drive into the park itself before hitting the trails.

The entire park's elevation is high; at the visitor center it is 7,894 feet, so be prepared for cold weather, even by winter standards. Even the average daily temperatures in January are highs of 39 and lows of 9. But on a clear winter day, the elevation allows you to see close to 200 miles into Arizona and Colorado.

When there is plenty of snow, snowshoeing is another great way to see the park. The park even offers free guided snowshoe hikes on most weekends, and sometimes during the week, all especially designed for the beginner.

The park provides high-tech snowshoes for all participants. Guides will show you the correct snowshoe techniques and also teach you about the winter ecology of the park.

One of the region's largest annual events takes place next month. The 28th Bryce Canyon Winter Festival runs Feb. 16-18, Presidents Day weekend, and offers a vast array of activities for all ages. Cross-country ski and snowshoe tours, ski waxing, archery and photography clinics and all sorts of competitions and contests are set to be available.

The area averages nearly 100 inches of snow a year, which is about as close as one gets to a guarantee of snow. But even if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, the festival still takes place. Ruby's Inn has an outdoor ice skating rink and rents skates at $3 for adults or $2 for children. It also offers sleigh rides at $25 per person, and children 3 or younger are free.

Bryce Canyon National Park is open 24 hours a day, although if heavy snow hits, there can be temporary road closures.

The Bryce Canyon Visitor Center is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily through March with extended hours the rest of the year.

For more information, visit nps.gov/brca or call 435-834-5322.

No in-park lodging is open in the winter, but Ruby's Inn, rubysinn.com, 866-855-6616, remains open, as do other places a couple of miles outside the park.

This makes it very practical to spend the whole day in the park, fall into bed and rise refreshed for an easy daylight drive back to Las Vegas.

Deborah Wall is the author of "Great Hikes, A Cerca Country Guide" and "Base Camp Las Vegas: Hiking the Southwestern States," published by Stephens Press. She can be reached at deborabus@aol.com.