For the previous post in this series, check out Day 4: Capitol Reef National Park and Natural Bridges National Monument. In this post, we visit the popular Bryce Canyon National Park in one day during our week-long Utah road trip.
DAY 5: BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
We had an interesting beginning to our day, as David had a phone interview for a potential job opportunity. (Who else has interviewed while on vacation?) Spoiler: they didn’t end up hiring anyone for that opening. But with a job he already enjoyed, this wasn’t much of a bummer for him. After a standard free hotel breakfast and the phone call, we checked out of the Days Inn in Torrey, Utah and began our drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.
SCENIC BYWAY 12
While it is not necessarily the quickest route, we absolutely recommend taking the Scenic Byway 12. This route is also known as an “All-American Road” and “A Journey Through Time Scenic Byway”. It is a fantastic 2.5 hour drive that takes you through beautiful Utah landscapes. At the summit, you can take in the views from an impressive 9,000 feet.
If you have some extra time on your trip, there are plenty of excellent stops along this road. Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are just a few examples. We would love to go back sometime and spend more time around here. But on this trip, we continued on our way to Bryce Canyon. Unfortunately, this was the first day of this trip that it rained. Right when we got to the national park, the thunderstorms began. After we got through the gates, we parked and ate our picnic lunch (PB&Js, anyone?) in the car as we waited out the rain.
QUEEN'S GARDEN TRAIL & NAVAJO LOOP
Finally, once the storm subsided, we began our exploration of Bryce Canyon. This ended up being one of our favorite places to hike because of the very immersive paths through the canyon and hoodoos (those skinny spires of rock that Bryce is famous for). We had parked by Sunset Point, which is where our adventure began. While you can do just the Queen’s Garden hike or the Navajo Loop, these two are easily combined into a single 3-mile hike. It is well worth it to do both, as you will get a close-up view of the wonders of Bryce Canyon.
We hiked along the rim towards Sunrise Point first while taking in the views from up top. Then we began our descent into the valley on the Queen’s Garden trail. This is a great family-friendly trail that almost feels like a giant playground with the way the paths go through the rock formations. This trail will eventually also link with the Peekaboo Trail. But we took the junction to Navajo Loop, arguably the most popular hike in Bryce Canyon. Along the Navajo Loop, you will see famous landmarks such as Thor’s Hammer (an aptly-named hoodoo formation), Wall Street (a slot canyon) and Twin Bridges (another rock formation that has an obvious reason for its naming).
To get out of the amphitheater area, the last part of this hike will take you up a series of switchbacks. It is a bit challenging, but the views here are worth it. Depending on what time of day you are here, be prepared for crowded switchbacks. We were there in the mid-afternoon with several tour bus groups filling up the trail. Of course, if you want to avoid going up the switchbacks, you could go the opposite direction that we did and end with the Queen’s Garden trail.
OTHER OBSERVATION POINTS
We finished this hike just in time before the rain rolled in again. The nice thing about Bryce is, not only can you walk along the rim to all the different viewpoints, but you can also drive to many of them as well. You may have a short walk from the lot to the overlook, but it can help you save a lot of time or in our case, avoid the rain. We drove to Inspiration Point and Bryce Point which both have beautiful views of the canyon.
Our new GoPro and selfie stick that we got before this trip really came in handy at these overlooks. The wide angle helped get great photos of us with the surrounding scenery. I’m sure many other visitors gave us weird looks as they heard us repeatedly yell “GoPro, take a photo!” But the resulting shots were definitely worth it if you have a similar camera or wide-angle lens.
Our last stop in Bryce was Rainbow Point, which is about a half hour drive (17 miles) from Bryce Point. This overlook at the southern end is also the highest point of the park at 9,100 feet. From here and the nearby Yovimpa Point, you will get a great view at more cliffs and hoodoos. Unfortunately, this was where we got hit with rain the hardest. So we mostly remember taking shelter in the roofed informational area before making a run for it to our car. There are more trailheads at this area, but due to time and the weather, this ended up being our last stop before heading to our hotel.
DINNER & LODGING IN PANGUITCH, UTAH
We stayed at the Quality Inn in Panguitch, Utah, which was about a half hour drive from Bryce Canyon. While we haven’t stayed at many Quality Inns, this may have been our favorite. Mostly because of the “Wild West” look of the hotel. However, it’s important to note the welcome desk, breakfast area and your room may all be in different buildings.
For dinner, we headed to the nearby Big Fish Family Restaurant, which was less than 10 minutes away from the hotel. It seemed like mostly a burger place, but we opted instead for some wings, chicken tenders and the salad bar. Oh, and we can’t forget about the amazing cheddar bombs. Basically, these were large tater tots stuffed with jalapeño and cheddar cheese!
After dinner, we returned to the hotel and went to bed pretty early. We wanted to get to breakfast around 6 and hit the road soon after. While it was only going to be a 1.5 hour drive to Zion, we wanted to make sure we got there early enough to get a parking spot inside the national park. Once the lot fills, there are plenty of parking options outside the park. But then we’d be at the mercy of the shuttle bus, which we wanted to avoid.
And there you have it: Bryce Canyon in one day, even with rain! Share some of your favorite hikes at Bryce or any questions in the comments below. Tomorrow, we make it to the final park of the week, the mighty Zion National Park! If you want more details on each day of our road trip itinerary, check out the other posts below.