National Park Week 2023 Day 7 – Bryce Canyon National Park!

To cap off National Park Week, I had to feature one of my all-time favorite parks!

We fell in love with Bryce Canyon during a tour of Southwest National Parks about 25 years ago and have been back several times since. I still remember waking up early to catch the sunrise and staying late to watch the sunset, seeing the amazingly vivid orange-red colors as the sunlight shined against the vast hoodoo rock formations. We also did a hike down to the canyon floor and across the canyon, walking amongst those mesmerizing hoodoos. I remember looking up at them in amazement! That is still one of the most favorite things I’ve ever done.

Something about those hoodoos is so captivating. This is a park that you have to see for yourself. No pictures or descriptions can really do it justice, even though I couldn’t help taking a million pictures anyway. LoL

While we were there, we also visited the Bryce Canyon Lodge in the middle of the park, which has seasonal rooms, a quaint gift shop, and a traditional restaurant where you can try the likes of bison stew and other delicious items. This was another one of our favorites while we were there. The kids still talk about it.

Bryce Canyon is home to the greatest number of hoodoos on Earth. Hoodoos are eroded irregular, column-shaped rock formations. During your visit, I recommend stopping at the Visitors Center first to learn about the park and these unusual hoodoos.

Do the scenic drive. The main road through the park will take you to the main amphitheater of hoodoos in the first 3 miles with many scenic viewpoints along the way. Stop at every viewpoint! See if you can spot Queen Elizabeth and Thor’s Hammer formations! The rest of the 15 miles of the road goes thru lesser-known areas for varying geology and wildlife, but still good to do.

You can hike the Rim Trail or several other trails of varying intensity down the canyon, or even bike, snowshoe, or ride horses around the canyon. Be on the lookout for wildlife. There are many varieties of birds around, so look up too.

Bryce is a designated Dark Sky Park, so you can visit the scenic viewpoints yourself or with a ranger-led event at night to get spectacular views of the stars.

The park is open 24 hours a day and does have an entrance fee but doesn’t require a timed ticket. Since it is situated at a high elevation, the snow season lasts longer there. Be sure to check its National Park Service site for road and trail conditions.

Bryce Canyon was first named a national monument in 1923, and then elevated to a national park in 1928 to preserve its “unusual scenic beauty, scientific interest, and importance”, so it is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, a perfect time for a visit!

When most people think of national parks in the Southwest, they immediately think of the Grand Canyon, which is amazing, no doubt. However, if you’re going to make a trip out to the Grand Canyon, I strongly recommend that you add a few days to go north to Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah as well. These three are all close enough together to be doable within a week-long trip. They all feature vastly different geological landscapes and are awesome in their own way. Check them all out!

If you can’t tell by now, I am a huge fan of the amazing national parks all around the country and the world. We hope to visit the rest of them soon. Definitely incorporate them in your future trips also.

I hope you have enjoyed this National Park Week series and have been inspired to visit some of them yourself. Feel free to contact me if you would like to chat about planning a national park trip.