Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park

After our day at Capitol Reef, the next day we were off to Bryce Canyon National Park. The most common road would have us back tracking through 2 hours of roads we had done the day before so we decided to try the road less traveled and we were pretty happy with that decision because it was probably one of the most gorgeous drives we have ever done!  

 

 Driving through the gates of the park actually reminded me a lot of Grand Canyon National Park.  There are shops and overflow parking in a little village like setting outside the park.  Before we left we watched a little documentary on this park so we knew some of the old wild west history of this place.  But no picture or documentary can do a place like this justice.  One of the things I noticed on the drive in was the most amazing paved walking/biking trail that went on for miles upon miles. It would be so fun if you were camping in the area! 

We were quickly waved through the gates. We did briefly see the Visitor Center, well I stayed in the car with Ayla but Peter ran the others in for a potty stop and to get their Jr Ranger Books. He said it was a very nice Visitor Center and had a pretty cool museum.

The canyon runs a long distance and has a long scenic drive but we opted to try and find parking and visit two of the notorious lookouts - sunset and sunrise.  Parking was filling up but we were able to find a spot and the best part of this spot is we could walk from sunset to sunrise as they were only about a half mile apart on the rim.  

I'm not sure there are adequate words to describe this place. It just kind of takes your breath away as you approach it.  

There are plenty of hiking options down into the canyon but with the amount of warnings at the trail heads we didn't brave them with the kids at this age but it is something we would have loved to do!  I absolutely loved this place and could have spent hours just sitting and watching, but we had busy children so we were on to a trailhead that we had confidence they could handle.

We found a nice little trailhead that we could drive to at the bottom of the canyon and see the hoodoos without having to hike down into them.  This was perfect for the kids to just run and have fun in the creek and see the canyon from below. 

The waterfall had all but disappeared because of cold temps but it was cool to be able to still hear it flowing, even if we couldn't see it. But we had to watch out for some pretty thick ice on the trail. 

Pro's of this park:

It definitely has the wow factor

It has nice facilities and a big visitor center

So many hiking options from beginner to pretty advanced it seems

Cons:

Definitely a busier park but we were fortunate to visit in the off season so we could park inside the gates

Parking was still scarce

But 100% this is a park I would choose to visit again and spend more time in. It was so gorgeous and if the kids were a bit older I would love to hike down into the canyon. So it is definitely on our list of places we would like to come back to someday! 

Rank of parks visited and reviewed:

1) Bryce Canyon 

2) Capitol Reef