On the Plateau, Part VI: Bryce Canyon

It surprised me at first that so many people name Bryce as their favorite site in the Southwest. Having waited decades to visit the Grand Canyon, I couldn’t imagine how that awesome wonder could be second to Bryce’s smaller, more easily comprehended rock sculpture. After visiting both, I understand. Where the Grand Canyon is magisterial, sublime, and intimidating, Bryce is intimate and playful. The Grand Canyon’s scope and formation proves nearly impossible for the eye and mind to grasp; at Bryce, erosion appears to be at work on a daily basis, having briefly stepped away from the rocks for a lunch break.
Sunrise at Bryce PointCommuning with the elements is also easier here. Nearby Zion’s beauty is often above you, and vistas into or along the canyon are rarely reached by easy hikes; the floor of the Grand Canyon is (or should be) reserved for those with both stamina and planning skills. At Bryce, it’s easy to walk the rim, looking down into the ‘canyon’, and then follow several routes to the bottom of the fairyland, staying for hours or even days.

This landscape results from another epic battle between water and rock. Highway 12 climbed on our eastern approach, a reminder that Bryce is not a true canyon but an amphitheatre, the intricately eroded edge of a plateau. Think of it as the side of a wonderfully colored layer cake of stone, left out in the rain for eons—gradually, the icing wears off, irregularly exposing and carving the structure underneath. The sloping edge displays all sorts of interesting structure where harder, higher layers of white dolomite have done their best to protect the softer orange and red sandstone underneath.

Among the many highlights:

• The popular Queens Garden-Navajo Loop Combination is a great introduction to the park. While hiking to an uncannily accurate likeness of HRH Victoria, you wend your way through hoodoos and crevices, then along the floor’s combination of shadows, technicolor rock, and alpine trees.
  
• Horseback riding is the other route down, and our 2-hour ride was the highlight of my kids’ visit.
  
• Sunrises and sunsets lure thousands here; if you’re planning a photo shoot, you’ll have company.
  
• Our trip coincided with June’s full moon and the ranger-led Moonlight Hike, where our shadows re-emerged as moonlight replaced the sun’s rays under Bryce’s dark, dark skies.
  
• At the day’s other end, I hiked into the canyon at sunrise, a beautiful, solitary experience—my best memory from Bryce.

Quick Tips:

Lodging options here are surprisingly limited. The Xanterra-run, in-park Bryce Canyon Lodge is a little pricey, but still a great choice—its cabins and motel-style units are right next to the park’s primary viewpoints and day-trails, so you won’t need your car for this area.
Bryce Canyon LodgeAfter that, the Ruby’s Inn megacomplex offers proximity (just 3 miles outside the park), dining options, gas, stores, etc.—and thus crowds. I made a reservation there, but eventually cancelled it for 2 nights at the lodge. Other places are increasingly far away (increasing your travel time), and several appear to be so-so. I found a small family motel in Tropic that looked like the best bargain option, but it required at least a 20-minute drive to the heart of the park—extra time for making it to the sunrise in the canyon.

Bryce is beautiful from the rim, but those views are best complemented with a venture down into the amphitheatre itself, along any of the well-marked trails. The NPS website has a good summary of trails, including topo maps, elevation profiles, and more to help you choose one to match your time and talents. Despite Bryce’s altitude (9,000’ in some places), remember to carry water—the temperature climbs steadily as you descend.

It’s hard to imagine someone visiting Bryce without plans to watch the sun set and rise over the rocks. Despite the names, Sunrise and Sunset Point aren’t the only—or necessarily best—places for these solar events. We watched the first at Inspiration Point (which offers three overlooks, including one a few hundred yards uphill that gets less traffic), and a ranger steered me to Bryce Point for the second sunrise and a subsequent hike. If you want a prime spot anywhere, though, you’ll have to arrive early. I’d recommend following the sunrise with an immediate hike—that was my best experience at Bryce.

Most visitors never get past the central amphitheatre. It’s wonderful there, but beyond Bryce Point lie Paria View, Farview Point, the misnamed Natural Bridge, Yovimpa Point—these are all beautiful places, and we often saw only (the same) four people as we visited each in midday. Take your time, though—they can all blend together if you just rush down the drive.

Best Way To Get Around:

Like Zion, Bryce’s one road is a two-lane, dead-end highway, with a shuttle in high season to lighten traffic, reduce pollution, and preserve the beautiful, clear skies. Unlike Zion, however, it’s optional. We stayed at the lodge, with many viewpoints and trailheads within walking distance, and when we headed south to explore the rest of the scenic drive, we didn’t find parking (or traffic) to be a problem. But this was early June; I’m sure this changes as summer progresses.

The shuttle starts at Ruby’s Inn outside the park (leave your car there), heads to the visitor center, south to Bryce Point, and then returns north to the major lookouts (and campgrounds, too). Buses run every 12 minutes, and the round-trip takes 50 minutes. Keep in mind that the shuttle does not travel the entire park road—to visit Rainbow and Yovimpa Points and other worthwhile locations, you’ll need to drive.

Particularly if the crowds are large, your best bet is to head all the way south (or to your southernmost stop), and then make your visits while heading north. All sites are on the edge of the plateau—to the east—so you’ll avoid waiting for traffic to clear for left turns into the parking lots (although we found this part of the park empty on our late morning visit).

Walking the Rim Trail is a good way to get around, especially near the lodge. In between overlooks, you often have the canyon to yourself in what otherwise can be a busy area. The mile-long section between Sunrise and Sunset Points is level and paved, and a great place to stroll. It runs 5 miles from Fairyland to Bryce Points, and includes some steep sections near both ends. The Park Service has a helpful trail description, including an elevation profile.

Finally, the other transportation option is horseback. Canyon Trail Rides offers 2- and 3.5-hour trips to and along the floor of Bryce. Other companies offer longer trips in the adjoining Dixie National Forest out of Ruby’s Inn.

Once at Bryce, you’re within a day’s drive of an amazing group of places. Our ‘Grand Circle’ through the spectacular southwest started and ended in Las Vegas, and included:

• Zion National Park
  
• Kanab to Kayenta: On the Plateau II
  
• The Grand Canyon’s North Rim
  
• Southeastern Utah and Monument Valley
  
• Capitol Reef NP
  
• Utah’s Backroads and Badlands
  
• Las Vegas and Valley of Fire

I’m awfully fond of staying in the park when it’s possible. The older the lodging, the more interested I am in making that the center for exploring the surroundings. The classic park lodges of Gilbert Stanley Underwood at Grand Canyon and Bryce were tops on my list when laying out this trip. His plan always involved a central lodge housing the dining room, lounges, and other places for guests to congregate, with clusters of cabins providing sleeping space for park visitors. When I learned that Bryce’s beautiful Western Cabins top out at four people (no rollaways allowed), that meant that the newer, Mission-60-era motel-style units would be our only in-park choice. Sunset Unit, Bryce Canyon LodgeBalancing this against the virtues and drawbacks of the Ruby’s Inn complex, struggling to find a place with character that wasn’t too far from the park, I finally settled on staying at the lodge for two nights. We’d be on-site when sunrise came, without another 10 to 30 minutes of driving to watch the spectacle.
Sunset Unit Room, Bryce Canyon Lodge
That was a great choice. The units themselves were very pleasant, much nicer than I’d expected. The room was extremely spacious—perhaps the largest motel room I’ve ever had—with room for two queen beds, an aisle between them, and a table. There was plenty of room between the end of the beds and the wall; so much so that you could move around the room easily even with the rollaway open—one of the few rooms anywhere that was actually large enough to comfortably accommodate a rollaway.

The best feature, however, was the balcony (first floor rooms have porches). We were fortuitously placed in one on the end of the Sunset unit away from the parking lot (Room 236), which gave our balcony a better view (and a breeze!) off two open sides. I’d definitely recommend a second floor room, as well as an end unit. The units are not on the rim, so the view isn’t into the Canyon, but—if your room is at the eastern end—into the pleasant stands of trees on the way to Sunset Point. It was a great spot to sit nearly all day round. Xanterra’s policy lets you make requests at check-in, so if you arrive early you might request such a room.

All rooms are reached off wide, pleasant indoor corridors. The whole unit is in excellent shape, with nice touches throughout. For example, the tiled bathrooms include occasional squares featuring relief outlines of wildlife, which provoked a ‘cool bathroom!’ from every family member as they entered for the first time.

The walk from here to the lodge is about 10 minutes, and takes you through Underwood’s original cabins. Those looked spacious and terrific, and if I returned with a smaller party, I’d look to stay there. And the cost is only marginally higher: $140 for the cabins, vs. $135 base rate for our room. Western Cabins at Bryce Canyon Lodge

Dining options at Bryce are surprisingly limited, given the park’s popularity. Outside the boundary, Ruby’s Inn dominates the market for both lodging and dining, with a restaurant, snack bar, and cafeteria to accompany their nearly 400 rooms. A few other motel/restaurant combinations lie along Utah 23, the spur that heads south from Utah 12 into the park.

But once inside the boundary, the dining room at Bryce Canyon Lodge is your only caloric option. That’s a little surprising, given that Zion and the Grand Canyon’s North Rim each have lower-end snack bars in addition to their upscale restaurants. Xanterra, the concessionaire at all three parks, allows reservations several months out, so we’d booked a table for dinner at 8pm on our first night in the park. We were too hungry to wait until then, and easily moved our reservation up to 5:45, choosing to watch the sun disappear on a full stomach.

The dining room was emptier than we’d expected. Guidebooks and Xanterra really push you to make your reservations as soon as that becomes possible, so I was expecting more company. (Of course, if you don’t get a seat for dinner, you’ll have to leave the park to find another place to eat, so that alone might be a good reason to schedule a seating in advance.)



The dining room is a very nice space, and feels perfectly in keeping with the lodge’s original design. It’s a long, rectangular room with high timbered ceilings. Spoiled by the dining room at the North Rim, at first we were a little disappointed not to be gazing out into the canyon as we ate. The menu is similar to that at the North Rim, a fine-dining experience featuring about 10 entrees distributed among Utah trout, beef, and pastas. Prices range from $10 to $30, with most entrees in the $15 to $22 range. I had the salmon, which is always hard to resist, and it was very nicely done. The rest of our party selected vegetarian pastas, salads, and a delicious pair of pork chops. Our bill came to about $20 per person for the five of us.

We returned the next morning for breakfast, as a reward for everyone braving the early morning chill for the sunrise at Inspiration Point. We’d already been up for a while when we sat down at 6:45, and hot coffee and hot chocolate was a good choice. There’s an à la carte breakfast menu, but nearly all those items are available at the breakfast buffet. That’s where four of us went, and my kids amazed me as they put away the eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and waffles, yogurt, fruit…I wasn’t far behind them, though, since we were fueling up for a full day of hiking and horseback riding. The food was fresh and hot, and better than some other reviews had led me to expect. Breakfast was over $50, though, so after two meals here we looked for cheaper options for our next meals.

Several guidebooks tout this family-run restaurant as a good, basic dining option at Bryce. I’d agree with the ‘basic’ characterization, but no one in our family was willing to go past ‘OK’ if they even went that far. Located just east of the junction between Highway 12 and the spur into Bryce Canyon, the restaurant is part of a small complex of motel units and unappealing prefab construction offering pretty inexpensive lodging. There’s also a supermarket and bakery—in a lot of ways, it’s a lower budget, smaller scale version of Ruby’s Inn, the Best Western affiliated mega-complex that dominates most of the outside-the-park commerce.

We were starting to feel the weight of 8 days' accumulated credit card receipts, and having disregarded our budget to indulge in 3 nights of dining at the in-park lodges, were looking to scale back a little bit. Riffling through my books and notes, Foster’s seemed like a place for a reasonably priced, no-frills meal, characterized as a steakhouse with a wide range of options.

We arrived about 5:30pm, and found the large dining room nearly deserted. I’m guessing the restaurant could accommodate 200 people; there were perhaps 10 there. The staffing levels seemed a little low, and we waited a bit before being ushered to a table in the corner of the restaurant. Our group picked a collection of burgers, soups, sandwiches, and salads. My burger was large—perhaps 1/3 lb—but a little greasy, and seemed to be a higher grade frozen patty. No one else was too enthralled with their meal either, or with the collection of self-published comedy books strewn throughout the restaurant (and for sale at the counter).

The staff was friendly, but the meal was pretty mediocre. We weren’t looking for a fine dining experience, and didn’t get one. If I was back in the area and looking for the same kind of meal, I’d try Ruby’s Inn next time.

It was a perfect day as we approached Bryce Canyon from the east, heading down Utah 12 under beautiful blue skies. Given its proximity to Zion, further to the west, this route to Bryce is definitely the road less traveled. On Mossy Cave Trail
Mossy Cave sits on Bryce’s far northeastern side, near the bottom of the amphitheatre. It’s the one road-accessible park site that’s not on the Scenic Drive, which keeps crowds down. This short hike serves as a great warm-up for Bryce Canyon, and is easiest done if you’re following our route into the park; if you’re already in-park, it’s about a 15-mile drive from Bryce Canyon Lodge.

About 10 other cars sat in the small parking lot, and we saw a modest number of people as we climbed and then returned. Even at the trailhead, Bryce’s signature orange rock is visible, and before long the trail had us climbing through more of it.
The route ascends Water Canyon, along the path of what appears to be a rather typical, vigorous mountain stream. It’s actually the result of years of hard labor, a man-made siphon dug by Mormon settlers to provide local farms and the town of Tropic with water from the Sevier River. Although it goes by the unseemly name of ‘Tropic Ditch’, the stream is far more attractive than its title implies.

As the trail reaches the end of its 300’ climb, the path forks: to the left lies Mossy Cave; to the right, Tropic Ditch cascades over a dolomitic waterfall. It doesn’t take long to follow both paths to their conclusion, and we did just that. We headed for the cave first, a relatively small excavation that’s more grotto than cavern, and sits under the cliff edge that lies in nearly perpetual shade. Carved by the waters from an underground spring, the combination of minimal sunlight and cool earth keeps the temperatures quite mild in summer, and you could feel cool air flowing out from under the rock. Although the cave often holds ice into early summer, it was already gone.
Waterfall on Mossy Cave Trail
Returning to the fork, we headed up the short climb to the waterfall. If you look carefully at the rock over which the ‘ditch’ cascades, you’ll note that it’s white dolomite, thus giving this waterfall a longer lifetime of resistance to erosion’s effects. It’s important to be careful in this area—it’s possible to walk over the edge, so small children should definitely be kept close.
Another Mossy Cave vista
Anxious for the main event, we headed back down the trail, stopping for a few pictures where the wooden bridge crosses back over the Sevier’s diverted waters. A few miles west of Mossy Cave, you leave the Park, then head south on Utah 63 before crossing the boundary again just south of Ruby’s Inn. This 45-minute excursion was a good introduction to Bryce’s geology and fabulous colors. Hoodoos on Mossy Cave

This is probably the most sought-after activity in Bryce. The Moonlight Hike takes place only 2 nights a month, on days near the full moon, and word has obviously gotten out about this evening expedition (a list of scheduled dates is at the NPS Bryce website). Getting tickets is no easy matter—the hike is limited to either 30 or 60 people (depending on the night’s itinerary), and tickets are only available on the day of the hike. They go fast, too—we arrived at the Visitor Center well in advance of the 8am opening, and found a substantial number of folks already in line for tickets. I’m sure some of those who showed up at 8 or even earlier didn’t get what they came for. But shortly after walking through the doors, we were handed tickets 21–25, along with instructions on where to meet that evening.

The Park Rangers work hard to keep the hike’s path a secret—unlike other hikes and programs, they don’t post the location for the hike on the visitor center bulletin board, and they quietly point out the place to gather as they hand you your tickets. Evidently, they’ve had problems with interlopers tagging along without tickets.

We rendezvoused at our secret spot at 6:45pm, and reconnected with our new friends from the morning’s ticket line. Our young ranger—a recent college graduate with a minor in astronomy—announced that the night’s hike would focus on the planets, since several were visible that night. Our group descended the Queen’s Garden Trail, starting when the sun was about an hour above the horizon. We’d stop every 10 minutes, and our ranger would describe the moons of one of the other planets in the solar system. I confess that, having taught astronomy, I spent much of my time lingering at the back of the pack and quickly setting up my tripod during the stops. The ranger’s presentation was good, though, and everyone who did pay attention was clearly enjoying the talk as well as the surroundings.

Nearing sunset
While we were still near the rim, the sun gradually retreated below the horizon, streaking the amphitheater with long shadows from the hoodoos. Our descent took about 45 minutes, and we reached Queen’s Garden just before deep dusk.

Moonrise from Queen's Garden
It was a neat experience to descend the same path we’d climbed at noon, the bright blue skies gradually replaced by increasingly darker purple hues. The bright colors appeared to gradually seep out of the rocks, leaving the white stone a dull pale, and the orange nearly a drab, lifeless gray.

Hoodoo at Night
It seemed as if the day’s show were over, the vivacious performers having left the stage for home and hearth. Both the crowds atop the rim, and the hundreds on the trail were also gone, and if our group was momentarily silent, you heard only the quiet of the canyon.

The Queen in Evening
At the bottom, the stone Queen still held court, her silhouette against the twilight sky an even better likeness for her English namesake. The full moon was now distancing itself from the horizon, providing some terrific views of the bright orb above hoodoos and through arches.

We began retracing our steps back up to the rim, the stops wisely a little closer for those feeling the various effects of age, altitude, or aerobic deficiencies. The group spread out a little more during the ascent, leaving more time for conversation and questions as we grouped together at each stop.

Not long after leaving the Garden, the news quickly made its way to the front and rear of the line—you could see your shadow! The full moon’s illumination was enough to outline each hiker on the rock walls, providing a major distraction as you tried to keep your feet on the darkened trail. Twilight ended not long after we reached the top, and by the time we emerged, the shadows were unmistakable. There are precious few places still dark enough to observe this neat phenomenon, and we spent more minutes walking along the Rim Trail, pantomiming and gesturing excitedly at each other and our dark outlines, as if we’d never engaged in shadow play before.

The night cooled off quickly with the sun gone. Waiting for us along the rim trail were members of the local astronomy club, showing off Jupiter and its moons and other delights with their array of telescopes. The dark, dark skies of Bryce are fantastic for astronomy, with amazingly little light pollution—after all, it’s a long, long way from here to a city of any size. We chatted for a while, until the chill of the night air proved too much for my kids. (Yet another lecture on how my astronomy students reliably under-dress for evening observing sessions failed to turn their attitude around.)

We headed back to the Lodge, still marveling over the night’s experience. If possible, I’d strongly recommend timing your visit to Bryce to coincide with the full moon. Bring a book and head to the visitor center around 7am—the hour you’ll spend waiting will be well worth it.

When I asked my kids if mule rides and horse rides should be part of our Southwestern swing, they wondered why I bothered to ask at all. After settling the anxiety about descending into the Grand Canyon (everyone remembered reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon), the chance to mount up at Bryce and the North Rim quickly became the most anticipated part of the trip. The same company—Canyon Trail Rides—runs the stables at Zion, Bryce, and the North Rim, and one January phone call set up both our hour-long rim-top ride at the Grand Canyon and our 2-hour descent to the floor of Bryce.

We arranged for a 2pm ride on our second afternoon in the park. As we headed north on the Scenic Drive after breakfast, we saw one of the hands leading a long string of horses and mules down the path, across the road, and over to the corral just west of Sunrise Point. We joined them shortly after lunch, part of a group of 20 who would ride a combination of horses and mules on the 2-mile loop.

We lined up outside the corral on a warm afternoon.The cowboys moved through the group, matching up each rider with a horse or a mule, based on size and temperament of both rider and animal, and family group. We were among the last to mount up, and all four of us ended up aboard mules. Each of the hands set out with a group of 6 to 8 riders, perched atop an animal notable for recalcitrance as we headed down a cliffside. As a novice rider, I tried hard not to think about that, but once you’ve had that thought...

The route enters the amphitheatre north of Sunrise Point, away from where most people congregate. The path goes downhill pretty steeply, and somewhere along the first set of switchbacks the entire chain of animals stopped. It was unnerving how close we sat to the edge while each animal took turns relieving themselves in exactly the same place (the ‘Mule Pools’, the cowboys informed us), a sequence of events that did not go unnoticed by any of the kids in our party.

Looking east
With that settled, we continued down the switchbacks. It took me a while to quit looking at where my mule would place her feet, or to wonder why she kept choosing to walk along the downhill side of the path. My struggle was helped by the fantastic view out to the east, over the frozen dribble-castle hoodoos and to Point Powell in the distance, which—as described—really does appear to be the bow of a sinking ship, ready to follow its stern down under the water. Our cowboy reminded us to keep the mules close to each other, and urge them forward with a combination of our heels and judicious application of the whip provided to each rider. Threatening this animal with violence didn’t seem like the smartest choice, but then I guess she was interested in returning safely, too.

We alternated riding for 15 minutes with stopping to allow the intimidated mule riders—those unwilling to show their animal who was boss—to catch up. Frankly, that didn’t leave much time to ask the guide questions once I’d rejoined the pack. In the few seconds left after I caught up, it seemed that he provided a nice combination of informative commentary, quiet for enjoying the surroundings, and cowboy humor (such as pointing out the recent cowboy work at propping up one of the hoodoos, now supported by a foot-long, quarter-inch diameter twig).

On the Canyon FloorThe path headed east for about a quarter mile, before turning straight south on to the east side of a nearly mile-long loop. This area is well past the edge of the central amphitheatre, out among the hoodoos with just your riding group for company—we didn’t see any hikers during the 2-hour ride. The landscape was more open than the Navajo Loop/Queen’s Garden hike this morning, and covering ground by riding seemed a good option in the day’s heat. The southern most part of the trip was just about a quarter mile east of the bottom of the Navajo Loop. Those on the half-day ride (which lasts 3 to 4 hours) would continue south to the Peekabo Loop before heading back north, a trip I’d gladly take the next time.

As we reached the switchbacks leading back to the rim, lots of groaning was heard. None of my daughters wanted to say goodbye to their animal or the canyon, and surprisingly, my backside was holding up well. I was in such a good mood that I even sprung for the full set of obligatory $5 "Here I am on my mule" pictures back at the corral. The whole experience was well-run from start to finish, and gave me an interest in something I never considered before—more horseback riding in the West.

This is one of Bryce’s most popular highlights, so you’ll have to plan accordingly to avoid the crowds. The Queen in her Garden is indeed a must-see destination, but the hike’s real beauty is the intimate experience it provides among Bryce’s hoodoos, where it often feels like you have landed on another planet.





Shortly after leaving Sunset Point, this connector descends a very steep hillside down a lengthy series of switchbacks. Another family was behind us, with a rambunctious 7-year-old who kept running up on my wife’s heels. Her requests for a little more space didn’t do much, and his behavior only changed when he fell off the trail, sliding 15 feet down the hillside onto the switchback below. That shook him up a little bit, made him anxious to stay next to Dad, and made the rest of our descent a little more peaceful.



At the bottom of the switchbacks, the connector ends and the true loop begins. To the left is the Two Bridges side, to the right, the famous Wall Street. Three weeks before we arrived, a rockslide closed the trail through Wall Street. Local newspaper clippings posted in several places around the park told the story of how a chance conversation between two hikers kept one from entering that narrow stretch just before the rocks collapsed. The rubble begins not far from the junction, and you were allowed to hike to the edge of the rubble that closed the pathway—a 15’ high pile of rock over a 60’ stretch. Wall Street features a large spruce tree that grows in the middle of the trail, reaching up out of the chasm for its sunlight, a fantastic sight. The Park Service plans to begin clearing the trail in Spring 2007, although whether it will ever fully reopen is in question.



But fear not: the other side of the loop is not without its own attractions. A very short spur leads up to Two Bridges, where two short natural bridges span the 6-foot gap between two steep, high walls. It’s very neat to see these rare formations within yards of each other. (The light here is dim, so those wanting a good picture may want to bring along a tripod.)



At this point, you’re on the floor of the canyon. The trail meanders northward, weaving around hoodoos and other stone obstacles, in and out of shade, all in a peaceful quiet. Not far down the path lies a bench under a rock overhang, a site that’s probably a popular rest stop in the afternoon heat.



Soon, the trail leads to another short spur into Queen’s Garden, a small, pleasant amphitheater with a few bench seats, rock nooks to rest in, and shade. Roughly 20 feet up, a hoodoo is topped by a 5-foot tall, stone, dead ringer for Queen Victoria, complete with crown and 19th century bustle.



In the past, many more hoodoos were named for objects they resembled, but the Park Service has moved away from that practice—both to let the natural world speak for itself, and also because erosion can rapidly alter features here (witness the rockfall at Wall Street).

It took just under an hour to reach the garden. We sat and enjoyed the surroundings, chatting with a pleasant couple from St. George. They’d abandoned their native Ohio 30 years ago for southern Utah, and after a week in their neighborhood, we could see why. Eventually, we both moved on—they headed south to the Loop, we began climbing back out to Sunrise Point.



The path up had a different character than the Navajo Loop descent: more of the trail lay out in the open, instead of running along the base of steep cliffs. I enjoyed the contrast between the two routes—the Queen’s Garden Trail offered more opportunities to stop and disguise a rest as a look out at the canyon. Our legs tired a bit as we neared the top, making us glad we didn’t have an additional 200 feet to ascend.



After a few moments to let everyone’s heart rates head back toward normal, we gazed out over the route we’d just climbed from the overlook at Sunrise Point, and then headed south for the half-mile walk back to Sunset Point and a picnic lunch on the porch outside our room. The skies were still amazingly blue, and the crowds were growing now. Fortified by salami sandwiches and peanut butter crackers, we headed to the corral to explore Bryce on horseback, ready to let another creature do the climbing for us.

It’s 20 miles down Utah 63—the park road—from its junction with Utah 12 to the end at Rainbow Point. The first 3 miles lie outside the park, and another mile takes you to the central amphitheatre, where the great majority of visitors cluster, and where the easiest access to the canyon lies. A mile past Sunset Point is a spur to three overlooks, of which the first Inspiration Point, where a set of three overlooks are built progressively south along the Rim Trail. Further down the road is a fork in the road whose northern side leads to Bryce Point, which looks into the amphitheatre from its southernmost point; the south heads to Paria View, the first overlook into the rest of the park.

We watched our first sunrise in Bryce from Inspiration Point, arriving just after 6am on a brisk morning—with temperatures barely above 40°, sweatshirts were proving not quite adequate to the task. The clouds added some additional color to the sky, but kept the canyon from bursting into Technicolor with the day’s first rays.

Satisfied by 6:30 that we wouldn’t be treated to an extended, beautiful display, we headed off to the lodge for the buffet breakfast and copious amounts of coffee and hot chocolate to shake off the chill.

I came back this way the next morning to watch the sunrise at Bryce Point, and to hike into the canyon during the first hour of daylight. As I drove back out to the scenic drive after that excursion, I decided I had time for the turn out to Paria View.

This location hadn’t drawn any photographers, and just past this spur is another landmark: the gate used to close off the remainder of the road in wintertime. I had this location to myself, along with the evidence that erosion never sleeps, as it gradually works its way back into the paved path of the overlook. The most spectacular hoodoos are in the amphitheatre, but the other general features remain the same: the plateau edge falls away in a cascade of orange rock, providing spectacular vistas to the east and along the rock edges to north and south and below.
Later that morning, with our whole crew in tow, we headed back down the Scenic Drive past the spur to Rainbow Gate, which closes the lower half of the road in winter and seems to keep most summer visitors out as well. Most areas below Sunset Point seem to experience only a fraction of the crowds at the other places. Clearly, their proximity of the central viewpoints to each other leads most folks to stay where they can move from site to site in near-record time. Unfortunately, that also results in many people treating Bryce as a 1-day, rim-top stop. Even if you don’t hike the trails into the canyon, the rest of the park road offers another way to escape the crowds.

Here at the southernmost end of Bryce, the road turns north into the parking area at Rainbow Point, which looks north back across the rest of the park and the Dixie National Forest to the east.

There’s a paved trail that runs along the rim, and actually connects with the Under-the-Rim-Trail, which runs along the Canyon floor north to Bryce Point. Off to the east is the Bristlecone Loop Trail, a short nature trail that cuts through several strands of its namesake, ancient trees, many located out at the southern end. Three of us hiked this path, marveling at the tough, twisted pines whose oldest member was over 1,800 years young.

Yovimpa Point looks off the plateau’s south edge to Arizona, which is actually visible on a clear day. Here, you stand atop the Pink Cliffs, the top stair of the Grand Staircase, which descends from here across the Grey Cliffs and White Cliffs to the Vermillion Cliffs that stretch into Arizona. In the distance, you may see the trees of the Kaibab Plateau on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.


The view is spectacular, and the three of us stood in the stiff breezes and remembered all the places we’d been over the last 10 days in this magnificent country. The Riggs Spring Loop Trail heads south from here to Yovimpa Pass before twisting east and north back to Rainbow Point over its nearly 9-mile length. The Park Service lists this as a strenuous backcountry hike, and I’d love to return for what could be a challenging day-hike, or a more leisurely overnight outing (there are four campsites along the trail).

Two miles north is Black Birch Canyon, where the floor is close and thickly forested. The Under-the-Rim Trail is only a half-mile from the viewpoint, but there’s no access here.

Another half-mile brings you to an overlook of Ponderosa Canyon. Although you’re surrounded by firs and spruces, down on the canyon floor the lower elevation supports the much larger Ponderosa Pines. You can access the the Under-the-Rim Trail here, via a connector that heads north and then descends Agua Canyon. Rainbow Point is an 8-mile hike south from here via this trail.

Agua Canyon is another mile north, and features the return of hoodoos similar to those in the central amphitheatre. The large ones to the right and left are among the few that still retain names. Although many hoodoos bore distinctive names in the park’s early days, a few decades of erosion have changed their features so significantly that the names no longer make sense. (By the way, the one on the left is ‘The Hunter’, and on the right is ‘The Backpacker’).

Having mastered the difference between ‘arch’ and ‘natural bridge’ during our visit to Natural Bridges, NM, we were already prepared to critique the naming of the principal feature at this overlook. With no running stream to carve the rock, the span of rock just down the slope is truly an arch, created by a combination of other processes.

We ended our tour of the Scenic Drive overlooks a mile north at the aptly named Farview Point, another place where the tiers of the Grand Staircase are visible. A very short trail leads to Piracy Point, looking northeast towards the rest of the park. Farview Point
On your way north to this location, the road passes a picnic stop at the head of the Whiteman Connecting Trail, the next-to-last opportunity to head down to the Under-the-Rim Trail From here, it’s 3 miles to the last overlook at Swamp Canyon, where the canyon floor really is moister than usual. This is another place to descend to the Under-the-Rim Trail, or the more roundabout route north to the head of Sheep Canyon and then down to the floor.

Farview Point was our last stop at Bryce. We'd only spent a few hours on this part of the scenic drive before leaving Bryce for the trip to Cedar Breaks and Cedar City. We were happy with how we’d spent our 2-night stay here, but on a return visit I’d be sure to come back this way, and include some long hikes starting from one or more of the beautiful overlooks along this route.