How to See the Best of Bryce Canyon in a Day

Bryce Canyon Visitor Center

Before moving on to Bryce Canyon’s best natural features, you should check out the park’s visitor center. It has a small museum explaining the geology of the park, which can be helpful in understanding how Bryce Canyon’s main feature, its hoodoos, were formed.

The visitor center also has an interesting exhibit on the International Dark Sky Places program. Bryce Canyon earned the recognition of being an International Dark Sky Park in 2019. This distinction means that the area in and around Bryce Canyon is protected from light pollution allowing us to see the night sky how it was meant to be observed.

The park created an exhibit in the visitor center that explains what a dark sky park is. The exhibit is fairly straightforward. What I liked, though, was the interactive part that showed how the night sky can change by adding various amounts of light. If you are used to living in big cities like me, it’s worth checking out.

Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop

This loop is one of the more popular hikes in the park. It showcases both far and near views of many, many hoodoos.

I recommend taking the trail in a clockwise fashion starting at Sunrise Point. Starting here gives you some great views of the amphitheater as you start your hike. The trail at this point is a little steep in parts but overall fairly easy.

As you reach the lowest point of the trail, look out for a short spur to the Queen Victoria formation. After returning from this spur, the trail takes you through a flat, wooded section until it comes to a junction with the Navajo Loop.

From here, you can either take Wall Street or Two Bridges back up to the rim. We took Two Bridges as it had just snowed, and they caution against Wall Street in colder temperatures due to concerns for ice.

Two Bridges has three highlights: the Two Bridges themselves, Thor’s Hammer, and the switchbacks to return to the rim. You can see Two Bridges very near the junction where you turn on to this trail. They look, appropriately, like two bridges connecting the rock walls on either side.

After a bit more hiking, you’ll start to climb up the switchbacks. For me, this was the most difficult part of the hike as they are long, steep and have no views to give you an excuse to rest. Once you reach the top, you’re rewarded with a sweeping view of hoodoos dominated by Thor’s Hammer. It’s worth taking a couple minutes to admire this scene after the long trudge up those switchbacks. The look back down the switchbacks is also quite stunning.

From here, it’s an easy hike along the rim back to your starting point at Sunrise Point.

Fairyland Loop

Longer and less crowded than the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop, Fairyland Loop is another great way to see many of Bryce Canyon’s wondrous rock formations. We hiked to Tower Bridge and back, having already done a lot of hiking that morning and the couple days before. We also wanted to catch the sunset from Inspiration Point, and had we done the whole 8.1 miles it would have been difficult to make it there in time.

You can start this loop at Fairyland Point or about 0.3 miles north from Sunrise Point. We chose to start near Sunrise Point. The beginning of this hike is pretty easy. It’s a gradual descent down the trail into Campbell Canyon. Watch for the Chinese Wall formation in the distance as you descend.

As you near the bottom, the landscape starts to become more desolate. Many of the hoodoos here have started to erode away. The trees take on a gnarled appearance. There are dried up creek beds. Taken as a whole, it’s an impressive desert terrain.

Whether you plan on doing the whole loop or not, you should definitely take the short spur trail to Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge was my favorite single formation in the whole park. It’s named after London’s Tower Bridge, but it reminded me more of something out of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings.

If you turn back here, it is a pretty strenuous hike back. What seems like a gradual descent on the way down turns into an unrelenting climb back up to the rim.

Inspiration Point

Watching the sunset at Inspiration Point was my favorite part of our day at Bryce Canyon. It’s hard not to feel inspired looking out at the amphitheater as the sun’s light reflects off the hoodoos.

There are three different levels at Inspiration Point to admire the views from. Make sure to get here early enough to take advantage of each one as each offers slightly different perspectives.

I also recommend taking a few moments to view the tree-lined horizon behind the viewpoints as the sun drops. It’s not as spectacular as the amphitheater, but it’s still beautiful, nonetheless.

If it’s not cloudy or too cold, you can also stay out past the sunset to do some stargazing. With Bryce Canyon being a Dark Sky Park, it is one of a few places in the world where you can view the stars without any light pollution.

Is One Day Enough?

Definitely. You could add another half day or so to do more hikes, but you really don’t need to. In my opinion, if you’re visiting Utah’s Mighty Five, you should spend more time at one of the other parks instead.

There was a certain point where I felt like I wasn’t seeing anything different in Bryce Canyon. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you only have so much time for your trip, it is an important consideration.

The only things I would have done with more time would be to hike the whole of Fairyland Loop and do the Mossy Cave hike. However, we could have done both of those things in the time we had but chose not to because of fatigue in the case of Fairyland Loop and park closures in the case of Mossy Cave.

Practical Info

What’s Nearby

There’s not a whole lot in the area immediately surrounding the park. Since you’ll want to spend most of your time in the park anyways, this is not a bad thing.

There are several restaurants nearby, but none that really stand out based on reviews or appearance as you drive by. We were going to try one of them to see what it was like; however, it was already closed for the season.

Fees

To enter Bryce Canyon, there is a fee of $35 per vehicle or $20 individual if walking or bicycling in. These fees can be bypassed with the purchase of a National Park Pass.

Where to Stay in Bryce Canyon

If you are traveling in an RV, I recommend staying at Ruby’s Inn RV Park and Campground. The accommodations are a little rustic, but its price and location within 10 minutes of the park make up for this.

Each RV site has full hook-ups and a fire pit. There are also public restrooms, showers, a pool and a general store located in the campground (the latter two were closed when we visited as it was late in the tourist season). If you do not have an RV but still want to stay outside of the park, they offer cabins and teepees, as well.

Another option for those visiting by car is the Lodge at Bryce Canyon. The Lodge is located inside the park making it convenient for those who want to be able to easily walk from their bed to the rim.

More Posts for Planning Your Grand Circle Road Trip

Here are my guides to more of the Grand Circle’s stops.

• Grand Canyon
• Las Vegas
• Moab (Arches and Canyonlands)
• Popular Detours (including Capitol Reef)
• Renting an RV
• Zion Hiking Guide
• Zion Planning

And don’t miss my full 12-day itinerary to planning your Grand Circle road trip!

Resources to Book Your Trip to Bryce Canyon National Park

Whether you’re looking for tours, hotels or flights, here are some tools to help get you started planning your trip to Bryce Canyon!

Look for activities and tours offered through GetYourGuide or Viator!

Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Check out my travel essentials pages for more of my recommendations.

Pin This Post!