Bryce Canyon National Park

When planning our trip to Southern Utah and Zion National Park, I realized just how close Bryce Canyon National Park is to Zion. It had also been at the top of our must visit for a very long time! On day three of our trip, we decided to get up early and drive to Bryce and explore another part of the region.

Having already been to the Grand Canyon a few years before, we could pass on that part of the area and just focus on these two amazing National Parks in Southern Utah. There are actually FIVE National Parks in Utah – so guys – go check them out! The one thing they all have in common is their signature red sandstone, other than that, Bryce Canyon is very different from Zion and definitely worth a day or more devoted to it.

As I mentioned in the post a 3-day trip to Zion National Park, I’m not a big fan of melting in the summer desert heat. We opted for a fall trip since our older two kids had a whole week off for Thanksgiving break. We were blessed with the most beautiful weather. It was clear, crisp, cool and most importantly, not crowded!

Our Plan

We set our alarms to get up early and drive over to Bryce Canyon National Park. We were staying in Springdale, Utah, just outside the Zion National Park entrance at the Desert Pearl Inn. It was a great spot for our family, but as those of you with more than 2 kids know, it can be tricky to find affordable hotels when you need to book two rooms! This worked well and thankfully each room had a kitchenette so I could make hot chocolate for the kids to entice them out of bed early on this very chilly morning.

The Drive To Bryce

Once we loaded up the car, we made one last stop for breakfast burritos at Cafe Soleil for a warm and delicious breakfast on the road. It was a gorgeous drive through Zion National Park’s east side. The cliffs in this part of the park are stunning. They rise up so fast from the valley floor as you approach the famous tunnel on the Mt. Carmel Highway. Originally surveyed in 1923, construction on this tunnel was completed in 1930. At just over a mile long, it carves it’s way through the mountain. Be prepared to move slowly through here and be on the look out for the “windows” built right into the tunnel walls that give you an incredible glimpse at Zion from above.

The Canyon Overlook trail is a good one for sunrise views. This trailhead is right after you exit the tunnel going east. There is limited parking here, best to go early, how early depends upon the time of the year. And while the sunrises later in November when we visited, it’s also more challenging to get out of bed in sub 30º weather!

The rest of the easy drive is just under two hours from Springdale. You will travel along meadows, canyons and a river to Bryce Canyon National Park 85 miles northeast of Zion. The Checkerboard Mesa area is beautiful and worth a stop as is Red Canyon. As a side note, if you are looking Red Canyon up online, I’m referring to the one on highway 89 en route to Bryce Canyon. As you can imagine, there are several red canyons in Southern Utah.

As we typically do when we meet a National Park for the first time, we stop at the Visitor’s Center to get the lay of the land from a ranger, stamp our National Park Passports, pick up a sticker and a patch as well as our Junior Ranger Guides. I had a pretty good idea of the hike I wanted to do and two vista points I wanted to see. I must be getting pretty good at researching because the friendly ranger said it was the best plan to get a good sense of Bryce Canyon in a one-day visit.

It’s actually a small park at only 35,000 acres as compared to Zion at 150,00 acres or Yellowstone at 2,000,000 acres! This means it receives far fewer visitors than other parks and is a good choice for a one-day visit. We arrived about 9am and were on the trails by 10am to beat the crowds. It’s a funny park in that the town is tiny with not much there and the entrance does not prepare you for the feast your eyes will receive when at the overlooks and deep into the trail valleys.

Unlike what Bryce’s name suggests, it is actually not a canyon at all but a series of enormous amphitheaters for which it’s best known. The characteristic hoodoos and the ombre formations of red, orange and white washed layers are all around you. It almost feels like you are on a movie set or even in outer space. It’s really like nothing we had even seen before. All five of us were captivated and could not stop taking pictures. In fact a lot of the photos I have of my husband or the kids have their jaws dropped and their eyes huge as they are taking it all in.

Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden

We did a fun 3.5 mile loop that was perfect for getting a sense of the scale of these amphitheaters as well as the diversity of the slots and the size of the hoodoos. We parked at Sunset Point to walk out to the overlook and couldn’t believe our eyes. As you can see if was a simply gorgeous bluebird day with skies so blue and clear you could see forever. The red sandstone really popped against the deep blue sky’s background for a stunning experience.

From Sunset Point we hiked down Navajo Loop Trail through the famous Wall Street, but instead of looping back up we continued on to Queen’s Garden Trail and up to Sunrise Point, then across the Rim Trail back to Sunset Point. From the moment you leave the overlook at Sunset Point and descend into the amphitheater, the color changes, the glow of the red rock makes everything incredibly golden.

The terrain changes as you exit that area as you approach more of a garden of hoodoos. You can see Thor’s Hammer which is the most iconic of Bryce Canyon’s hoodoos as well as one of the tallest rock formations said to resemble Queen Victoria overseeing her garden.

It is a fun day trip from Zion that allows you to see both parks while staying in Springdale. Other than the red rock, the two parks are very different. I’m so glad we made time to drive over. Our hike that day was unforgettable.