Bryce Canyon National Park
WHO
Our family of four visited Bryce Canyon National Park when Averhy was 16 and Eden was 13 years old. The hike we did was fairly easy and we all enjoyed this park.
WHAT
For our half-day of hiking in Bryce Canyon, we took a small daypack with water, granola bars, trail mix, and beef jerky. You can see our entire road trip packing list in the full Utah Road Trip post here. Temperatures were cool, but warmed up as we hiked, so we were comfortable in hiking pants, sweatshirts, stocking caps and puffy jackets.
WHEN
We took this trip in March during the girls’ spring break. This was a great time to visit Bryce Canyon National Park because the temperatures were mild (around 45*) and the park was not crowded. It was also neat to see the snow on the hoodoos.
WHERE
We stayed at the Best Western Plus Ruby’s Inn, which was just outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. The location was great, and the room and breakfast buffet were good too. There was a general store attached to the hotel, where we bought snacks for the day.
Since we were here in the winter months, some of the trails were closed due to ice (and one due to a rock slide) so we didn’t do as much hiking as we originally anticipated. The places we went are marked on the map.
WHY
We enjoyed Bryce Canyon because the landscape was so unique and the trail we hiked quickly dropped down into the canyon, giving us several different views of this area. We also felt like we were able to see a lot within a short amount of time, which allowed us to spend the rest of the day exploring other areas nearby.
HOW
After getting a map at the visitor center, we learned that the Wall Street trail was still closed for the winter and the second half of the Navajo Loop trail was also closed due to a rockslide. That meant our hike today would be an out-and-back, from Sunrise Point to the intersection of the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop trails. Unfortunately, we made a wrong turn at the start and walked along the very muddy Rim Trail for a bit before realizing our mistake!
After turning in the right direction (and changing out some muddy socks for clean ones)
we started at Sunrise Point (the main photo at the top of this post) and quickly dropped down into the canyon.
The hike was muddy at parts, but easy overall. There were a lot of impressive views right at the start, and once we neared the intersection of the trails, we were hiking through a more wooded area.
The further we hiked, the fewer people we encountered. There is a side trail that takes you to the Queen Victoria Hoodoo, and it seemed like a lot of people stopped here - but I would recommend continuing down into the forest to the Navajo Loop intersection (and hopefully all the way back through Wall Street, if it’s open when you visit!)
The entire out-and-back hike took us just over 2.5 hours, with a snack break in the middle.
Final Tips
If you visit Bryce Canyon in the summer, be prepared for very crowded parking lots. There were very few people on the trails when we visited, but the parking areas near Sunrise Point were nearly full.
Since we were hiking in the spring, the muddy parts of the trails were MUDDY. Like suck-the-shoe-right-off-your-foot muddy! So be prepared, and have a dry pair of shoes and socks waiting for you when you finish the hike!
A half-day was enough for us to get a feel for this National Park, but we would also enjoy hiking more trails and spending more time here if we came back.
