Visiting Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of those must visit places to see once in your lifetime while exploring the national parks in Utah. Each season is very different and the colors of the canyon change constantly with light hitting the canyon during the various times of day. I visited late in the afternoon and during the monsoon season which brought dramatic skies and other challenges in capturing the canyon in flat light to changing light conditions.

Here are some highlights to visiting Bryce Canyon

 

 

Bryce Canyon visitors center

After entering the park entrance, the Bryce Canyon visitors center is to the right and is a good first stop to get oriented to the main attractions of the park. There is a fantastic movie that plays regularly worth watching and afterwards you can visit the nice little museum filled with historic, botanical and cultural displays and artifacts along with the typical stuffed wildlife from the area and some nice dioramas of the landscape. At the information desk at the lobby, you can also ask about hiking trails, photo worthy stops and other canyon centric details you have questions about.

 

 

Overlook areas of Bryce Canyon

From the Bryce Canyon visitors center, you drive down a bit further to the main parking lot to the overlook vista point. From there it is a very short walk to the many vista points along the canyon rim. From the lookout point, you can reach the Bryce trails leading to the bottom, take the popular Navaho loop trail  around the canyon or even take a nice hike along the canyon rim for different vistas looking down into the canyon.

Tip: For a comprehensive list of trails in the park, check out this Byrce trails website for more details.

 

 

Trail head to vista point at Bryce Canyon National Park

Panoramic vista of the entire canyon

 

 

 

Trails down to Bryce Canyon floor

At the canyon overlook, you can find a trail guide showing all the trails and distance to each hike. Most of the trails are on dirt or gravel paths and go downhill very quickly, so you can decide how far you want to go before you have to take the trek back uphill. For an easier and scenic route, you can also walk through the canyon rim trail which is also a dirt road over small up and downhill pathways. There are many scenic vista points worth stopping and taking photographs of the magnificent views, also a few places to sit with log benches along the trail if you want to stop and admire the canyon scenery.

 

It’s really fun to walk down from the top levels of the various hoodoos and get up close and eventually at the bottom and looking back upwards to where you came from .

 

 

 

 

Loop trail at Bryce Canyon

 

 

Bryce Canyon rim trail

For an easier and scenic hike, the canyon rim trail has slight hills and offers magnificent views to different outlook areas around the canyon rim including Bryce Point and Fairyland Point. From the main overlook area, you can follow the trail head on the right side leading out to Fairyland point, which is the northernmost point of the rim trail.

 

 

 

Beautiful decaying tree limbs along the canyon rim

 

 

Selfies are always popular at Bryce

Just be careful of where you are locating yourself on the rim since there are no guard rails along most of the rim trail. This visitor below was practically right at the edge of this cliff and focused on the camera and not where she was standing. (Although it did make a spectacular shot for me to capture)

 

 

 

 

Or seeing how close you can get to the edge of the rim

 

 

 

I’ve got to do a selfie here too!

 

 

 

More decaying tree limbs frame views of Bryce Canyon

There are a few tree limbs and other dead trees along the rim trail which made it fantastic to use and frame into the photograph. This dead tree below practically had no soil beneath it and created a nice foreground shot to the landscape behind it. You can also find a variety of grasses and wildflowers blooming along the rim canyon trail.

 

 

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, please check out my other articles on Utah’s national parks and monuments below

Visiting Zion National Park and popular hikes

American Southwest road tour

 

Wild flowers in bloom along the canyon rim trail

 

If you visit Bryce Canyon National Park

Park is Open 24-7

Visitor Center and Fee Booths are closed on Thanks Giving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day

Address – Highway 63, Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce, UT 84764

Entrance Fees

Weather is temperate for most of the year – it is also unpredictable with changing conditions, always be ready for anything. Click here for the most current conditions for Bryce Canyon National Park

For more general information on visiting Bryce Canyon, check out the National Parks service website here for more details and information.

 

 

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