After our visit to Zion, our next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. It was a short drive, about 1.5 hours long. The scenery along the way was very entertaining, and before we knew it, we had arrived. We were booked to stay two nights at The Lodge at Bryce Canyon, right in the park.
The backyard of the Bryce Canyon lodge still had patches of snow on the ground.
I am not sure exactly what I expected it to be like, but I guess from the pictures I thought the two parks would be similar because of the color of the rocks in the photos. They are quite different! First of all, Bryce is extremely remote. Where Zion had the town of Springdale at the entrance, Bryce was pretty much in the middle of nowhere with very few places to eat or purchase supplies. Knowing this ahead of time would have been helpful so that we could have stocked up on food and snacks at the grocery store in Zion before we left there.
Another difference was the temperature. Bryce Canyon is at 8,000 feet, so the temperatures were much cooler than Zion. There are tall Ponderosa Pines everywhere. Add the patches of snow that were all over the grounds, and it looked like the top of a mountain where you would see skiers. But — here’s where it differs. Out of nowhere, the ground just disappears and you see this down below. As far as the eye can see. Very similar to the Grand Canyon I would say.
Looking down into Bryce Canyon.
Checking out the scenery in the backyard of the Lodge on our first night. There were areas without this fence. Yikes!
You see, Bryce Canyon National Park is not really a canyon. It’s actually a plateau. All the hikes start at the top and you hike down into the hoodoos (that’s those creepy little towers you see everywhere). That is different from Zion in that all the hikes start from the bottom and you hike up.
When we woke up on our first full day, it was Easter Sunday. We tracked down a church that had posted a flyer in the lodge. Thankfully they made it clear that it was “come as you are”. And we did. It was in a tiny town outside of the park called Tropic. And it was a tiny little church, so different than what we are used to. But…we felt so grateful to have somewhere to go to celebrate Easter. Max even attended their children’s church and declared that he would like to come back next week.
After the Easter service, we headed out for a hike into the hoodoos. We did the Navajo Trail and combined it with the Queen’s Garden trail. It took us about 3 1/2 hours. If we didn’t have the kids, it might have been more like 2 hours, but we pretty much let them stop and rest whenever they want to. And we have one that asks to rest quite often 🙂
Getting ready to go down into the hoodoos.
Max and Ben enjoyed the natural arches and tunnels on the hike.
We like to come loaded up with food and water on our hikes. Plenty to keep everyone energized and hydrated. On this hike, we stopped for lunch under the shade of a tree that had some logs around it we could sit on. We made PB&J’s, and used the propane heater to cook up some dehydrated camp meals.
The boys also planned on getting their Bryce Canyon Junior Ranger badges on this visit. If you remember, the Park Ranger we got in Zion was extremely laid back. Not so much here. Plus, we found the booklet to be super challenging. Brian walked the boys through many of the pages….and he got stuff wrong! This ranger was no nonsense and not letting anything get past him either. Regardless, we gave him the “we are not leaving this place without a badge” look, and he finally begrudgingly handed them over. Sheesh!
Max saying his Junior Ranger oath.
Another Junior Ranger badge for their collection.
The park has a main drive and many different “points” where you can park and see down into the canyon from a variety of vistas and elevations. Something else we did in Bryce was take a drive up through the park to the highest point, Rainbow Point, which was over 9,000 feet in elevation. On the way, we would pass beautiful areas with snow and stopped to let the boys play in it for a while. When we eventually got to Rainbow Point, do you know how COLD & WINDY it was?? We made it for approximately 7 minutes before bolting back into the car. Remember, we are from Florida.
Bryce is famous for the amount of constellations you can see there. Later that evening, Brian went to check out the stars before the moon came up. There was a full moon during our stay which was gorgeous, but hindered star viewing. We found out there was a window of time, from 9-9:20pm where you could see all the stars before the moon came out. They boys and I missed that because we were cozy in bed. However, the next morning I was determined to see the sunrise over the canyon. So we headed out in the wee hours to see it. It really was stunning, and I highly recommend it!
The moon was still up as we were waiting for the sunrise.
The glow before the sun peeked out.
Sunlight starting to fill the canyon.
Sunrise!
Later that morning, we did one last hike, Mossy Cave Trail, before heading out of Bryce. By this time, Max was pretty much “over” hikes. We changed our terminology to “strolling” to see a cave and waterfall, but he was skeptical. Thankfully it was a short one.
Last hike in Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park was quite the sight. I am so happy we saw it because really, we have never see anything like it. If you have the time to incorporate this park on your trip to Utah, I would definitely recommend going. Here are some tips and recommendations if you would like to visit:
- Try to stay for at least 1 night. Depending on your pace, 1-2 nights is ideal to get to really experience this park.
- Stay at the Bryce Canyon Lodge. All you have to do is walk toward the back of it and you can see the massive canyon. We stayed in a building that was set up like a hotel, but there were some really cool cabins too. If you can get one of those, do it!
- Bring fresh food and snacks with you. The options to eat are very little. There is a sit-down, full-service restaurant in the lodge that serves mediocre quality food. Your other option is a general store that serves convenience store quality food. Nothing in between.
- Come prepared for big swings in temperature. One of the things I remember learning about Bryce is that the temps go below freezing 200+ days of the year.
- Check out a sunset and a sunrise. It is worth it!
After Bryce, we headed back to Salt Lake City to enjoy some city time before heading home. I will post a few highlights in another post.
Pierina
Your photos are awesome!! You are an excellent photographer Ale!
Ale Post author
Thank you, Pierina 🙂