Bryce Canyon National Park Day Hike

A Bryce Canyon National Park Day Hike should be high on your bucket list. With orange rock hoodoos, it’s a breathtaking scene to behold.

Bryce Canyon National Park day hikes are in Southern Utah, and I first went nearly 20 years ago, and it was covered with snow. It was absolutely breathtaking. Having grown up in the flatlands of Houston and New Orleans, I just wasn’t used to outdoor beauty like this. I’d seen the Rocky Mountains in Northern Utah, but THIS…this ORANGE ROCK, stole my heart. I’ve been so anxious to take my family there, and I’m delighted to share our recent visit! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

{I’ve been trying to find that vintage pic, and it seems to be lost! Once I do, I’ll include it here}

Back when I was in college, I remember vividly my trip there. My cousin Mike, 3 years old than me, drove me down, and we met my older brother Ryan with his then girlfriend (now wife). It was February 1998, my cousin driving through the snowy mountain roads left me with a near heart attack. There was some skidding on the icy roads, and it terrified me! He thought it was pretty funny that I was terrified.

I also remember being a little grumpy that my brother had a new girlfriend. BUT the beauty that surrounded me took over my attitude and brought me so much JOY! Taking my family back was a huge highlight, I just couldn’t take in the surroundings enough.

Since we really only had 24 hours, we made a plan to do 2 different hikes. My brother Russ and his family who live in Tennessee joined us, and I’m so glad they did. My kids had to step it up quite a bit to help with the little legs, and they did a great job of that. My husband is also a rockstar storyteller, and was able to help them forget how tired they were on our longer trails.

My brother discovered the REI National Parks app which is FREE and AMAZING! It tells so much about different trails and even has pictures from previous hikers so you can know generally what scenery you will see on the trail. We were able to search by family friendly trails.

Because our time was short, and I wanted to make sure that I:

Could get a picture up above of the entire landscape
Could snap a shot where we were deep in, looking up

Download that app for ANY national park, you’re welcome.

We took one evening hike and one morning hike.

Our evening hike at Bryce Canyon was exploring the South Rim Trail:

The evening hike first took us to the overlook, Inspiration Point. THIS SPOT was the overall picturesque spot I was hoping for. It was simply breathtaking. Literally. Took my breath away. The evening sky also casted lovely light on it. This was a paved concrete trail from the parking lot with a short fence all around, so the little ones aren’t in jeopardy of falling over (like we experienced exploring the Grand Canyon South Rim). I was bummed that I hauled my big SLR camera there, but it didn’t have a memory card in it. So, I got some decent iphone pictures.

We actually started and ended at Inspiration Point. After we stopped there, we went on about a 5 mile hike around the South Rim Trail.

Love my little Bro, Russ, and his wife Kim. Do you see the resemblance?

My husband wins the best uncle award on this trip. He had a most excellent story going, to try to keep my niece and nephews mind off of complaining about the walk. His hand holding was slight dragging at times! We took turns, I just don’t have pictures to document it! But he tells better stories, I try to sing songs.

Here is our whole crew, no passers by to ask to take a picture of us!

My big kids were also a tremendous help with the little ones. Keeping the conversation going, talking about nature and making up stories about dragons.

I just couldn’t get over how beautiful it was all over. Wished I could hike this more often. But even for those that live in Utah, it’s out of the way. I’ve talked to a lot of Utahns that have never been to Bryce Canyon National Park, many to Zion’s, but not Bryce.

More of our Bryce Canyon National Park Day Hike continues…

Our morning hike was exploring Peekaboo Loop Trail and Queens Garden Trail:

Peekaboo Loop Trail–this was exactly what I wanted in going down deep INSIDE of the landscape. I wanted to touch the orange walls, and we did! It was a bit over 5 miles. We were able to latch onto the Queens Garden Trail here for more pretty scenery. There were some exposed slopes here, but it wasn’t super steep or deep, so I wasn’t worried about the littles here.

I was happy to get down INSIDE and be one with the orange rock.

AND, we had a BIRTHDAY GIRL who turned 8 this day. I knew she was bummed to not be back in Texas celebrating with her classmates, but I promised her, it would be an EPIC birthday spending the day with the family in this beautiful piece of the country. We woke her up to balloons and then brought some with us to the hike.

My BIRTHDAY GIRL scaling the walls!

Cousins!

Here are a few I snapped on my iphone of the morning hike. Love that shot of my Sis in Law with a toddler on her back and baby on her shoulders! My kids were each assigned a cousin to be in charge of, they did that well!