visitors or even our visit decades ago. In 1919, tourists from Salt Lake City visited Bryce Canyon. Ruby and Minnie Syrett erected tents and supplied meals for overnight guests near Sunset Point. In 1920 the Syretts constructed Tourist’s Rest, a 30-by-71-foot lodge, with eight or ten nearby cabins and an open-air dance floor. In 1923, Ruby and Minnie established Ruby’s Inn just outside the park. More than two million visitors come to experience the otherworldly magic of Bryce Canyon National Park each year, most between March and early October. However long your visit, advance planning will have the greatest benefit in making the most of your time. A tour of Bryce Canyon National Park is easily doable in one day, although a longer visit will reap more scenic rewards. Hikers will especially find a longer stay more beneficial as they take advantage of the many well maintained trails. Your first visit should be to the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center. Grab driving and hiking directions, weather forecasts, a current schedule of Park Ranger-guided programs, Junior booklets, and information about services including lodging, dining, and other attractions. While at the Visitor Center see the new award winning film, “ A Song of Seasons. ” The film is 24-minutes long and plays on the hour and half hour throughout the day. Explore museum exhibits and the bookstore. Bryce Canyon has one main 18-mile road that
runs north-south through the park. Most visitors will first be looking for views of the Bryce Amphitheater, found along the first 3 miles of the road, where you’ll find the four most popular overlooks in the park: Bryce Point, Inspiration Point, Sunset Point, and Sunrise Point. These viewpoints are also trailheads for some of the parks most popular trails (e.g. both Sunset and Sunrise Points are trailheads for the popular 2.9 mile Queen’s/Navajo Combination Loop). This area is best for those visiting 1 to 3 hours. Longer visits often include a trip down the full length of the main road (known as the Southern Scenic Drive) to Rainbow Point, Natural Bridge, and other viewpoints. Visitors typically travel the full length of the road to Rainbow and Yovimpa Points and then stop at viewpoints on the way back. By far the most iconic section of the park, the Bryce Amphitheater is home to the greatest concentration of irregular rock spires (called “hoodoos”) found anywhere on Earth. Viewpoints along the first 3 miles of the main road provide access to views overlooking this area. Perhaps the most iconic of all the Bryce Amphitheater’s four major viewpoints, Bryce Point provides a soaring view of the park’s most popular area. Along with Bryce Point, Inspiration Point provides a birds-eye view of the world’s largest collection of hoodoos found within the Bryce Amphitheater. Nowhere are the colors of Bryce Canyon’s rock better displayed than from
Bryce Point at sunrise. Credit Brian B. Roanhorse, NPS.
HOODOO, YOU DO
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