Bryce Canyon National Park

In National Parks, you never know whats around the next corner, and that could not be more true at Bryce Canyon. The first step into the amphitheater filled with strange rock formations called hoodoos will be a moment you’ll always remember. And that was certainly true for us.

On our way from Zion, we stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument. That was a bit of a preview of what we would see at Bryce. The sites certainly aren’t the same, but they are similar, and we advice visiting both, but probably hit Cedar Breaks first, so that Bryce doesn’t overshadow it too much.

The highlight for us at Cedar Breaks was the snow. The elevation meant that even in the Utah desert in mid-June it was cold and there way plenty of remaining snow. (Always a treat for kids from a warm climate.) The other highlight of Cedar Breaks was the rapid acquisition of Junior Ranger badges. It ideal to take a couple days to explore a Park and truly earn the badge, but sometimes you only have a couple hours and you need to grab your pencil and get to work!

We pulled into the North Campground at Bryce Canyon around dinner time, and we were satisfied to make dinner and crawl into bed. This was purposeful, as well. We knew that we had a horseback ride in the morning, and we didn’t want to steal any of the awe.

So come 8am we were on horseback climbing a small hill to reach the first view into the Bryce Amphitheater. Let’s cut to the chase: this is, for certain, the best way to get your first glimpse at this other worldly place. We cannot recommend enough entering Bryce by horseback. We booked the half day ride from Canyon Trail Rides. We took the horse trail to Peakaboo Loop and then made a figure eight through a combination of hiking and riding trails. All together, three hours on horseback was a spectacular way to see Bryce Canyon and reach parts that would take hours of hiking to reach.

In the afternoon, since legs were fresh, we took on the 8-mile Fairyland Loop, which hits an entirely different part of the canyon. The trail was silent, uncrowded with great views of hoodoos that you don’t see from other vantage points.

One of the best parts of camping or staying in the lodge at Bryce is that the trails are at our disposal without having to drive or worry about trailhead parking. It’s almost like staying at the top of a mountain and downhill skiing. You start at one point and can branch down many routes. It’s the same at Bryce, except the “chair lift” is your legs hiking back up and out. We took advantage of the proximity to many trails and the ability for just one or two of us to go explore for a bit if the rest of the group preferred to stay in the van and rest.

Parks are always putting on events and festivals. Sometimes you travel in for them, sometimes you find out about them the day of and realize how lucky you are to be in the Park when something special is going on. For us it was the annual stargazing festival that Bryce hosts. There were about a thousand people in attendance in the pitch black. The wait to get into the telescope field was well over an hour, but volunteers were helping kill time in the line telling stories about astronomy and pointing out what we could see with the naked eye. It felt like we stumbled into something great.

Our second full day in Bryce was Father’s Day, and for a dad who loves National Parks, there is no better place to be. We hopped in the van to check out southern portion of the amphitheater, checking boxes and collecting awe-inspiring photos at Inspiration Point, Bryce Point, Paria View, Rainbow Point, Yovimpa Point, Agua Canyon, and Natural Bridge.

For the final night in Bryce we checked into the Lodge at Bryce Canyon for some showers and soft beds. The evening left time for a quick hike (3 miles) down Navajo Loop (via Wall Street side) and back up Queens Garden. That was rewards with some pizza for lunch. The pizza from Vahala is worth the wait!

On the final morning in Bryce, the chance to see the sunrise over the ampitheater was irresistible. A 4:45am wake up was good enough to be the first at Sunrise Point, but once others came it made sense to shift farther down the trail and set up a time lapse video.

One more dip into the canyon: This time down the Navajo Loop switchbacks and back up on Wall Street — which is no joke!

By midday we were checking out of Bryce Canyon and on our way to Capitol Reef.