After our great hiking experience at Zion National Park and a good night’s sleep, the Husband and I checked out of our Beaver, Utah hotel and headed to Bryce Canyon. We’d heard Zion National Park was awesome and that Bryce Canyon was even better so we were excited. Also, since it’s a higher elevation, we were looking forward to some cooler temps! We checked out the website beforehand and decided to park outside of the park to take the free shuttle bus in.
Due to our new National Park pass for the year, we popped to the ticket counter just to pick up a trail guide before boarding the shuttle.
This time around, we decided to bypass the visitor center and head straight to the trails. The park has a designated shuttle/trail area and then an area to drive around yourself. We headed to the farthest shuttle stop, Bryce Point, to take some photos and determine what trails to take.
We were wowed at how different Bryce looked compared to Zion! From there, we began our hike along the Rim Trail, an easy walk along the top of the canyon.
We came across this sign that cracked me up 
If you look closely, there is a message to both dog owners and dogs themselves.
One thing that’s different at Bryce is that you can take a horseback ride down into the canyon. It wasn’t something we were interested in that day, but it was fun to see the horses go by.
After some time along the canyon’s rim, we headed to the lodge (which had a restaurant) and then to the General Store, to grab some lunch. The next time we go to national parks, I plan on preparing lunches for us to bring along. There was a good selection though of snacks, sandwiches, and other munchies, though, that met our needs.
Our first up close wildlife of the day – birds on the porch with us looking for some food.
After lunch, we headed out on a more strenuous hike to see the Chinese Wall and Tower Bridge. The hike down was easy (it was down of course) and back up was more strenuous, but we really enjoyed the sites along the way.
We also checked out Sunrise and Sunset points before beginning the Navajo Trail.
We only hiked a little bit down as we were tired, hungry, and thirsty. We will definitely be back as this trail looked awesome! After the hiking, we took the shuttle back out of the park to grab our car to start the driving portion of the park. We hit each of the lookout points before heading back towards Zion for dinner and St George for the night.
Driving through Bryce and Zion was breathtaking. Even if you don’t have time to stop and hike, we highly recommend a quick drive through each – you won’t regret it!
I truly can’t wait to go back!!! Nor can I wait for all of the other national parks we’re checking out in the next 10 months before our pass runs out
Enjoy the photos!
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