Bryce Canyon in 1 Day

We left our campsite a little before noon on Sunday and drove through the Zion-Mount Carmel toward our next destination at Ruby’s Inn and RV Park.

Ruby’s Inn and RV Park is located a convenient five minutes from Bryce Canyon National Park’s entrance. It offered a variety of accommodations ranging from actual motel rooms, tent sites, and an RV park. In addition to accommodations, they had a ton of amenities including hot showers, a swimming pool and a convenience store. Our group opted to stay in a teepee for the night.

Dinner and Scenic Drive

Since we arrived to Ruby’s Inn a little after 5pm, we decided to grab some dinner at a nearby restaurant before taking the scenic drive through Bryce Canyon. Bryce was a good 20 degrees cooler than Zion, so we made sure we packed sweaters for when the sun started setting.

Unfortunately, we only had until noon the next day to explore Bryce Canyon, so we had to be somewhat selective about where we stopped. The sun began setting fairly quickly and we only had the chance to stop at Inspiration Point, Paria View, and Bryce Point before it got dark.

http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/bryce-canyon-national-park-map.pdf

Sunset and Sunrise Point

The real treat was at Sunset and Sunrise Point, which were both located close to the entrance of the park and adjacent to the Bryce Canyon Lodge camping area. The distance between the two viewing points was less than a half-mile, and the view was simply breathtaking. However, by the time we got there, it was dusky.

But actually, Sunrise Point

In a move that surprised nobody, I snuck out of the teepee at 4:30am to catch the sunrise at its namesake viewing point. Keys in hand, I nearly left by myself but I imagined the group waking up and thinking I was abducted by a bear, so I aggressively tapped Greg awake and drove our van over to Sunrise Point.

We got there early enough to make coffee in the van and take a couple of mugs out to watch the sun rise.

Navajo Trail

Allison and Matt had slept into about 7am when we swung back to the teepee to regroup. The plan for the morning was to head back into the park and hike the Navajo Trail loop, which stretched for about 1.5 miles into the canyon. The descent was pretty steep, but the hoodoos were even more breathtaking up close.

The hike took a little less than two hours, so we had plenty of time to go back to camp, take a hot shower, and eat breakfast before hitting the road before noon. Allison and Matt had plans to go south to Arizona, so we said our goodbyes as Greg and I planned to make the trip through Grand Escalante and into Capitol Reef National Park.