I have so many hikes and adventures I want to share with you that I barely even know where to begin, so I thought I’d start with the overlooks in Bryce Canyon National Park. Not everyone wants to slog up and down a river of freezing cold water for 9 hours, (The Narrows in Zion National Park which is 100% worth it) but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of wonderful sights out there to see!
All of the pictures you’ll see today are from 2 of the 4 overlooks in Bryce Canyon, and it’s only a couple hundred yards of walking to take in these magnificent views. On top of that, the Rim Trail which connects the overlooks is paved and it’s accessible by wheelchair or a stroller for that matter.
The trail goes for as long as you’d like up to 11 miles out and back around the canyon rim, so it makes for a great place to take a sunrise or sunset stroll. The easiest segment of trail is the 1 mile stretch between Sunrise and Sunset Points.
The 4 overlooks are called Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, Inspiration Point, and Bryce Point – I’ve listed them in the order you’ll encounter them from the main park entrance. Contrary to what you might think, Sunset Point is actually incredible for viewing a sunrise, and I personally think Bryce Point is really great too because of the contrasting colors of the hoodoos.
This is the early morning first light on Bryce Point, and you can see what I mean about the contrasting colors of white and red rock.
This gives you an idea of what the ‘trail’ is like that runs between the different overlook points.
If you look carefully, you’ll see the different trails down below in the bottom of the canyon leading in and around the hoodoos. If you have some time, I can’t recommend these trails enough (more on this to come). We really enjoyed the hiking in Bryce and we’re definitely coming back for one of the bigger hikes that we missed due to a serious rain storm. If you’re a strong hiker, you could do the main trails in a day and a half to two days. If you want to spread it out a bit with just 1 hike per day you’ll probably need 4-5 days to see most of Bryce Canyon National Park.
Early dawn is also a wonderful time to see Bryce Canyon, the display of stars is legendary but we missed most of that because of the weather system that was passing through, (yet another reason I have to go back as soon as possible)!
I hope you enjoyed the views today, and we’ll see you soon for another adventure!