Trip to Bryce Canyon

Our first destination in the four day long trip was Bryce Canyon. Located in southern Utah, Bryce Canyon National Park is famed for its red hued hoodoos and conical rock formations. The park is relatively smaller in size compared to other famous national parks of Utah such as Zion. As per the guest reviews of many travelers in trip advisor, Bryce Canyon can be covered within a matter of few hours. Bryce Canyon looks at its best during sunrise or during sunset when the sunlight creates a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors on the rock formations. Since with our current itinerary, it would not have been possible to visit the place to experience the beauty unfolded during the sunrise, we planned to witness the wonder created during the sunset. 

Though we wanted to start early in the morning for Bryce Canyon from Las Vegas, we spent more than an hour having our breakfast done and locating Subway where from we packed our lunch. After my experience in Grand Canyon where we wasted two hours only to be served cold stale sandwiches, I always prefer visiting national parks with lunch items packed beforehand. Not all the national parks have good provision for food, so you better be ready. By the time, we started from Las Vegas towards Bryce, it was 10.30 am. It takes about 4 hours from Las Vegas to reach Bryce. Since Utah is one hour ahead in time from Nevada, our GPS showed the arrival time to Bryce at 3.30 p.m. However, we were halted in traffic jam for 30 minutes created due to road construction midway, which ultimately increased our arrival time to 10 minutes past four. 

We reached Bryce Canyon exactly at 4 p.m. The entry fee was $30 per vehicle and it is valid for 7 days. The points that we decided to pay a visit to within Bryce Canyon were chosen keeping in mind the constraint of our two year old. We opted out hiking from our option and focused on the overlooks to have the best possible view of the Bryce Canyon and the Bryce Amphitheater. The Bryce Amphitheater is the most sought after section within Bryce Canyon among tourists. All the major overlooks including Inspiration Point, Bryce Point, Sunrise Point, and Sunset Point offer a good vista of the Bryce Amphitheater. However, Paria View, which was the first point we paid a visit to, offers the view of a distant valley into which a tributary of the Paria River flows. The creek was, however, completely dry when we visited. Though the vista offered by Paria View may not be as attractive as that of other viewpoints, it is worth a visit because it offers a view of the canyon from a different angle.  

View from Paria View

 

We three at Paria View

The Bryce Point was the next point we paid a visit to. Bryce Point has an elevation of 8300 feet and gives more attractive view of the sprawling hoodoos than that of Paria. The labyrinth of fins and hoodoos with specks of greenery in between creates a beautiful landscape to marvel at.

The Bryce Amphitheater viewed from the Bryce Point

However, the best of all the overlooks was the Inspiration Point, especially the Upper Inspiration Point, which involves 0.5 miles of hiking along a steep trail. Though it was quite strenuous for us to hike the slope with our child in the stroller, we did climb up to the vantage point at the Upper Inspiration and I am glad that we did it. The vista of spire shaped rock formations from the Upper Inspiration point was breathtaking. I wish our camera could have captured the beauty our eyes witnessed. 

 

The amphitheater visible from the Inspiration Point

 

My better half with the amphitheater in the background at Upper Inspiration Point

The last point we visited was the Sunset Point. Sunset Point offers the view of some of the most famous of Bryce Canyon's hoodoos such as the Silent City and Thor's Hammer. When we arrived at the Sunset Point, more than one hour was left for the sunset and we saw several photographers getting ready to capture the view of the canyon during sunset. However, I was disappointed to see that many of the hoodoos went already behind shadows, because the view is facing the east, which means that long before the sun is set, the hoodoos will get overtaken by shadows. So I wonder if the wait for taking a picture during  sunset is worth it. Fortunately, one of the two famous hoodoos, the Silent City was still visible when we arrived at the Sunset Point, so we were able to capture it in the camera lenses. 

 

The Silent City

After finishing our trip in Bryce Canyon, we started toward Kanab, which is considered the heart of Utah’s national parks because of its close proximity to the national parks in southern Utah. We decided to spend two nights in Kanab because of the same reason. It takes only one and half hours from Bryce Canyon to reach Kanab. Kanab is also close to Zion National Park and Antelope Canyon, our next two destinations. Zion is located only at one and half hours distance from Kanab while Antelope is within one hour driving distance from Kanab. I would recommend anyone planning to visit the national parks around southern Utah to choose Kanab as a stopover as it will save a lot of to and fro driving time.