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Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park was the second stop on our road trip to Utah’s Mighty Five national parks. The drive from Cedar City to Bryce Canyon was unreal! It takes you several mountain passes and red canyons before taking you to a relatively flat drive with beautiful mountains in the background. When you first drive into Bryce Canyon National Park, it doesn’t hit you the same way that Zion does. When you drive into Zion, you’re immediately surrounded by its grandeur. This isn’t to take anything away from Bryce. It’s only to say the experience is different.

As we drove through the park, it reminded Jake and me of Northern Minnesota, which is a beautiful place. And then when you make it to the viewing points, which also serve as trailheads, Bryce Canyon takes your breath away. It will leave you breathless. The varying colors of the canyon, the hoodoos, the mountains in the background, and the trees make for an incredible view. We found as we traversed each park it was hard to compare it to the others as each park is vastly different than the others. It’s also what makes this road trip special.

Before you go, here are some things to consider.

  • Bryce Canyon is at a higher altitude than the other parks. Its average elevation is 8,000 ft above sea level with Rainbow Point at over 9,100 ft above sea level. If you’re not used to higher elevations, Bryce Canyon should not be the first park you visit. Give yourself time to acclimate to the higher elevation as the Mighty Five Parks’ average elevation is over 5,000 ft. There is a big difference between 5,000 ft above sea level and 9,000 ft. You should familiarize yourself with the symptoms of altitude sickness and if concerned discuss it with your healthcare provider before your trip.
  • The busy season runs from April to Early October. And it is busy, so plan to get there early in the morning if you’re not staying in the park.
  • Buy the Interagency America the Beautiful pass. For $80 ($20 for seniors, free for military,) it gives you access to all of the National Parks.
  • We only had one full day at Bryce and I would recommend trying to plan at least 2 or 3 days here.
  • The Bryce Canyon National Park newspaper is a good resource for planning your visit.
  • Watch the weather carefully. The weather will impact your ability to complete certain hikes (like the Narrows) safely.
  • Get the right gear! You’ll need good hiking shoes and socks, ponchos, jackets, walking sticks, hats, sunglasses, a charger for your cell phone, lots of water, and snacks. Additionally, we brought bear spray, sunscreen, and bug spray. We ended up needing heavier jackets, hats, scarves, and even mittens (my hands were so cold) as it was quite cold the morning we went.
  • Prepare to be flexible. Your planned hikes may need to change depending on the weather conditions or rock falls. We had planned to do both the Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden Loop, but couldn’t only do part of the Navajo Loop due to a rock fall on the Wall Street side of the trail.
  • There are two restaurants in the park. We ate at Valhalla the pizza place, which was quite good. It wasn’t ridiculously expensive and the pizza and hot chocolate hit the spot.

Some of our favorite hikes:

  • Navajo Loop is a moderate 1.5-mile hike that begins and ends at Sunset Point. It is one of the park’s iconic trails passing Thor’s Hammer and featuring numerous switchbacks! We started on the Two Bridges side as the Wall Street side was closed due to a rock fall. This trail can be combined with the Queen’s Garden Trail or Peekaboo Loop Trail. This trail is a bit deceiving as you begin the trial by descending into the canyon. The end of the trail. is the hardest as you ascend back up from the canyon floor.
  • The Queen’s Garden is a moderate .9-mile hike that starts at Sunrise Point. It’s called the Queen’s Garden because of a hoodoo that was said to resemble Queen Victoria. We combined this trail with the Navajo Loop Trail, which was an awesome hike. Again the beginning is much easier than the end when you have to ascend out of the canyon.
  • Rainbow Point Trail is listed as a 1-mile easy hike. Jake and I found it to be a bit harder than easy due to the high elevation. This trail is at 9,100 feet above sea level, which is about 9,095 feet higher than I’m used to. However, you shouldn’t miss this trail. The views from Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point are incredible. Even if you don’t hike the trail, you should drive up to Rainbow Point to see how the park changes as the elevation changes. Moreover, you can also enjoy the Rainbow Point Lookout without having to hike the trail.
  • Mossy Cave Turret Arch and Little Windows Trail is located on the East side of the park off of Utah Scenic Byway 12. It’s a .9-mile up-and-back trail that culminates with a cave and a beautiful waterfall. Since the trail isn’t in the main part of the park, it didn’t have any crowds at all. It’s a short beautiful hike with plenty to see.
Bryce Canyon Selfies

Animals you may see while visiting Bryce Canyon (not an exhaustive list):

  • Pronghorn
  • Mule deer
  • Golden-mantled ground squirrel
  • Golden eagles
  • Peregrine falcons
  • Utah Prairie Dog – you can adopt one at the Vistor’s Center, which we did. His name is Mr. Muffins.
  • Great basin rattlesnake
  • Tiger salamander
  • Cougars

The park has a beautiful visitor center and numerous nice restroom facilities throughout the park. The shuttle system efficiently transports guests up and down the canyon to the various trailheads. If you’ve never been to Bryce Canyon National Park, I’d recommend adding it to your list of places to visit.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

The biggest challenge I’ll face in the next six months is planning for one son’s graduation and the other’s wedding. I’d love to throw in a trip too, as I’m quite passionate about travel, but don’t think I’ll have the time or money to travel.

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The Mighty Five

For some time now, hiking the Mighty Five has been on my bucket list. It was always going to be a matter of finding the time between the hockey trips, work, and visiting Jake. Last fall the stars aligned, I had taken time off and bought tickets on Delta to visit Jake in Utah already anticipating him going down range again. Fortunately, things changed and he wasn’t going abroad again. Consequently, I decided we should take the time to hike the Mighty Five. After all, it would have been criminal for him to live in Utah for four years and never take advantage of the National Parks in his backyard.

My trip was eight days, which gave us six days to traverse southern Utah and all five of the parks. To plan the trip, I used the Wanderlog app, so I could share our itinerary with our family. This way if something happened on a hike and they didn’t hear from us, they’d have an approximation of where we were going to be that day. This was an important tip I came across when researching the trip. Several trails in these parks must be respected as they can quickly turn dangerous. Also, the parks are in remote areas and cell service isn’t a given.

Looking down the Virgin River at Zion National Park

To fine-tune the itinerary, I leveraged All Trails, the park services app, and several blogs to figure out the best trails to hike. This proved quite helpful although there was some disagreement between the park services and All Trails as to the difficulty of some of the hikes. Before you reach the park, it’s imperative to download the trail maps to your phone. While the trails at Zion and Arches were very well marked, it was not the case at the other parks. Each park has its guide to the park and trails denoting the difficulty of each trail.

Beautiful Bryce Canyon

There is a little extra planning that needs to go into both Arches National Park and Zion. If you want to hike Angels Landing, apply to the lottery. You can no longer hike this trail without a reservation. Similarly, you’ll need to be extra prepared to hike the Narrows depending on water temperature, depth of the virgin river, and weather conditions. As for Arches, you’ll need to reserve a timed entry window for admittance into the park during the high season. Like Angels Landing, the Fiery Furnace hike requires a reservation.

Even with a lot of planning, go into the trip knowing that you may need to be flexible on your expectations. There could be changes in the weather or rock falls that impact your ability to complete certain hikes. Moreover depending on what season you’re in, there could be road closures up in the mountains. The best time to plan a trip is spring and early fall. This will give you decent weather without all the crowds of high season. We were there in early October and the parks were still super busy. And of course, bring plenty of water both with and without bubbles. Jake and I would enjoy cold, crisp sparkling water at the top of every hike.

Hickman Bridge at Capitol Reef National Park

We started our trip at Zion staying in Cedar City, which is about 45-55 minutes north of the park. We have two full days at Zion. However, I would have gladly spent more time there. The next park we hit was Bryce Canyon, which was under two hours from Cedar City. We stayed in Cannoville, Utah, which is a tiny town that doesn’t have a post office or cell service right off Utah’s Scenic Byway 12. This was our base for both Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef Park. Our last stay was in Moab, which is near both Canyonlands and Arches National Park.

Canyonlands National Park

I planned for a full day at Bryce, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands with 2-2.5 days at both Arches and Zion. Additionally, I planned 2-4 hikes a day or about 10-13 miles. Jake and I both trained for the trip, so we’d be able to tackle the more challenging hikes. I’d recommend that anyone looking to hike these parks do the same. We could have spent several more days at each park. Moreover, we could have spent another month exploring the incredible landscape around these parks. Interspersed between the national parks are several incredible national monuments, national forests, and state parks. There is something incredible to see at every turn.

Delicate Arch at Arches National Park

What I didn’t expect was the incredible drives between the parks. The drive from Cedar City to Bryce Canyon was breathtaking. Scenic Byway 12 was one of the most harrowing, yet beautiful drives I have ever taken. From the steep drop-offs and beautiful views of the canyons in Grand Staircase Escalante to the beautiful high mountain road with free-range cattle and changing foliage, southern Utah is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The drive alone between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef is worth the flight to Utah. I’ve written about our time at Zion and will be writing about our experiences at the other parks. If you’re on the fence about a trip to the Mighty Five, get off the fence and do it.

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

The one thing that never gets checked off the “to-do list” is dropping off the donations at Goodwill. They seem to sit and sit in the garage for months or even years on end. I’m not even sure why that’s the case as it’s not difficult to drop the stuff off. Yet here we are with stacks of bags to be donated.