Bryce National Park

 

Bryce National Park is a popular national park in the states of Utah in Unites States. It is about 2 hours East of Zion National Park. It may not be as famous and popular as its neighbor Zion National Park, Bryce National Park is still spectacular to visit. It has amazing hiking trails that take visitors through its unique land formation with beautiful sceneries.

We visited Bryce National Park as part of our road trip in Utah. This was our second stop of the road trip. We checked in to the hotel at around 1PM and drove to Bryce National Park. We had the choice of taking the shuttle bus of just drive into the park We decided to drive into the park and it turned out to be the correct decision because there weren't that many cars in the park.

The first thing we did was to go all the way to the end of the scenic drive at mile 18 where Rainbow Point is at. The reason is that almost all the scenic views are on the East side of the park. Thus it would be easier to visit the from top to bottom. At Rainbow Point, we had a grand view of the entire canyon from the highest point in the park and we also hiked Bristlecone Loop Trail.

After visiting Rainbow Point, we drove our way down to visit each view point at Black Birch Canyon, Natural Bridge, and Fairview Point. Each of these view points are a quick come and go kind of view point. We got out of the car, take a look at it and take few photos, then hop back into the car to get to next view point. The view was spectacular but didn't need to spend much time.

We then get to Bryce Point and this was a major attraction at Bryce National Park. There is a platform built for people to walk to the edge of the canyon and it provide a panorama view of the canyon. It was pretty amazing to see so many Hoodoos at once for the very first time. We really loved it and this was when we actually started to enjoy Bryce National Park.

Afterwards, we visited Paria Point and Inspiration Point. At Inspiration Point, you get much closer to Bryce Amphitheater. We had a very close up view to the Hoodos there. The trail was Inspiration Point brings you up to the upper view point where the view was even more amazing!

We went back to hotel after visiting all these view points to prepare for next day morning. On the second day, we woke up early to drive to Inspiration Point to see the sunrise. The sunrise at Bryce National Park was magnificent. When the sun light shone among the Hoodoos, the Hoodoos turn into growing orange colour. It was just amazing view.

After the sunrise, we drove to Sunset Point to do all the hikes. We planned to do the "Figure 8" hike. The first thing we did was going down the Navajo Loop Trail. The view was crazily awesome and you really need to pay a visit to this. After that, we did the Peekaboo Trail. Both of these trails take you through the canyon close up to the Hoodoos.

We then walked from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point to do Queen's Garden hike. The view from the top was awesome and we loved it. The view seemed like something from an oil painting. The hike to Queen's Garden was quite boring however. It was not as interesting as previous hikes.

Overall, we love Bryce National Park. We felt that this was the highlight of the road trip so far. Thus we highly recommend to visit Bryce National Park when you are in Utah.