Note: We receive a small commission for purchases made through links in this post.
Following our stay in Moab and visits to Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks we headed to Bryce Canyon. Here’s our 1-day guide to visiting Bryce Canyon National Park with kids.
When I was a kid, one of the most memorable places we visited was Bryce Canyon. I remember hiking through the hoodoos and taking picture after picture with a film camera (most of which didn’t turn out that good). So, on our Mighty 5 National Park adventure I knew that a full day at Bryce was going to be a highlight.
Bryce Canyon National Park with Kids
We began our time, after a stop at the Visitor Center to pick up Junior Ranger booklets, with a visit to Sunset Point.
Parking is limited here, but first thing in the morning we found a spot before the rush. Since not everyone hikes from this spot you may get lucky as the parking spots turn over through the day. It felt odd when the Ranger suggested at 8AM that we start our day at Sunset Point, but for the hiking trail we selected it was the perfect plan.
We combined the Navajo Loop Trail with the Queens Garden Trail and as such went down a long switchback section that we were glad to avoid climbing back up. The people coming up as we went down looked tired and sweaty. While it was warm when we made it to Sunrise Point (where you climb out of the Canyon again) it was nothing compared to going the other direction. The resulting trail is 2.9 miles long and unfortunately, due to the season, the Wall Street section of the Navajo Loop trail was still closed. This hike was a highlight of our entire Utah trip and it is easy to understand why this is amongst the most popular hikes in Bryce Canyon.
Since it was now about lunchtime and we had worked up an appetite, we took advantage of one of the picnic tables at Sunset Point before visiting the restroom and setting off for Rainbow Point.
Scenic Road Viewpoints
One of the best suggestions we read about for Bryce Canyon was to drive all the way to the end of the Scenic Road and to visit the viewpoints along the way back north. In doing so, you get to take only right turns (since all the viewpoints are on the east side of the road) which is both safer as well as a lot easier.
Rainbow point was congested, has a small parking lot, and was the site of a Ranger talk. The view was pretty, but signage was poor and to be perfectly honest I don’t think we ever saw Yovimpa Point which is on the opposite side of the parking lot. Overall Rainbow Point has more to see than Yovimpa Point and was a spot where we took some fun family pictures.
Coming back north, we stopped at each of the 10 viewpoints. We found the Natural Bridge, Farview Point (with a hike to Piracy Point), Bryce Point, and Inspiration Point to have the best views.
While you can hike from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point, you can also drive between them. Since parking was decent at each spot (the spaces turn over fairly quickly but more parking was available at Inspiration Point than Bryce Point) it didn’t seem worthwhile to hike. If a person so wanted they could hike from the viewpoint just off the parking lot at Inspiration Point up along the rim and get to a higher elevation, but that is up to the energy level and interest level of the group.
Following this we headed back to the Visitor Center where we watched the park movie and shopped in the good-sized gift shop. We added two new Junior Rangers badges to the collection. Finally, we made our way back to our rental home in Orderville.
Next we head to Zion National Park.
Leave a Reply