Bryce Canyon National Park, utah
Attractions Guide

Bryce Canyon National Park is a truly unique and incredible landscape, which is riddled with hoodoo formations and natural amphitheaters. These stunning formations are especially beautiful as they are made of red rock and covered in tall forests. Despite the many tourists. Bryce Canyon also offers a great chance of observing wildlife such as deer during your visit.

Most of the sights within the park are along Highway 63, which travels south from the town of Bryce into the park, gaining in elevation as you make you way up the plateau with countless viewpoints along the way.

The drive along Highway 12 (between Highway 89 and Bryce Canyon) is very scenic, passing underneath two arches while surrounded by majestic forested red rock. If driving along this route, be sure to stop at the Red Canyon Visitor Center to admire the surrounding red rock hoodoos and scenery. This area even offers a few easygoing hiking trails.

Just before entering the national park is Fairyland Point, which features a striking viewpoint over this gorgeous and complex landscape.

If you'd like to explore this otherworldly landscape, you can hike part of the the 8 mile (12.9 km) round-trip Fairyland Loop Trail, which is one of the best hikes in the park featuring stunning scenery along the entire route. This hike begins from Fairyland Point, before descending deep into the hoodoo canyons, passing by striking formations such as the Sinking Ship and Tower Bridge.

After winding through this hoodoo wonderland, the trail descends back up to Sunrise Point, from which you walk along the edge fo the canyon back to the trailhead. It's highly recommended to at least explore part of the route if you don't wish to hike the entire length of the trail.

Just after the entrance to Bryce Canyon are two of the park's most iconic viewpoints, Sunrise Point and Sunset Point.

Queens Garden Trail & Wall Street

Starting from Sunrise Point you can explore the park's most popular hiking route. The route descends down the Queens Garden Trail before circling around to connect to the far (south) side of Navajo Loop Trail before ascending back up to Sunset Point. The incredible portion of the trail leading up to Sunset Point is known as Wall Street, named for the towering red hoodoo walls which surround it.

After ascending up to Sunset Point, be sure to walk about two minutes down the northern side of Navajo Loop Trail to view the Bryce Canyon's iconic Thor's Hammer formation. Afterwards it's a short and scenic walk along the canyon rim to return to your starting point, Sunrise Point. The total route length of this loop is about 3 miles (4.8 km).

Next you can take a short 0.6 mile (1 km) round-trip walk up to Upper Inspiration Point located close-by, before heading to the grandiose Bryce Point, which overlooks everything you've seen so far from a very high elevation with incredibly gorgeous views.

Peekaboo Loop Trail

From Bryce Point you might consider the challenging 4.8 mile (7.7 km) round-trip Peekaboo Loop Trail that descends down the cliffs and walks amongst the many hoodoos you were looking over. This trail even connects with Navajo Loop if you're looking for a longer hike.

Much further south into the park (and higher in elevation) along the rim you'll find the Natural Bridge viewpoint overlooking a giant arch. Not far from here you can stop along at the Ponderosa Canyon viewpoint along the road, which provides excellent far-reaching views over the vast forests and mountains in the distance.

Rainbow Point

Continue up to the very top of the park at Rainbow Point, which overlooks hoodoos and tall red rock cliffs set amongst dense forests.

Yovimpa Point

On the opposite side of the cliffs from Rainbow Point is Yovimpa Point, which is considered the best place to appreciate the massive geological scale of the Grand Staircase-Esclante, which descends down over vast plateaus as far as the eye can see like a massive staircase, best seen with very clear weather.

On the eastern side of the national park down below the cliffs near the town of Tropic is a fantastic short-stance hike that follows along a gorgeous red rock landscape of hoodoos along a stream, leading to the Mossy Cave and a beautiful red rock waterfall. The Mossy Cave Trail is only about 1 mile (1.6 km) round-trip and highly recommended.

To the southeast of Bryce Canyon are several more great hiking opportunities, including the Willis Creek Slot Canyon Trail which travels amongst an extremely scenic canyon gorge along a small stream. The total in-and-back distance for this slot canyon trail is about 7.4 miles/11.9 km (or much less as you can turn back whenever you like). Just be sure to bring waterproof boots.

In the area near Willis Creek Slot Canyon you might consider hiking amongst the otherworldly landscape of Kodachrome Basin State Park. The best longer distance hike in this park is the 6.1 mile (9.8 km) round-trip Panorama Loop Long Trail.

The most rewarding short length trail in the park is the 1.6 mile (2.6 km) round-trip Angel's Palace Trail, which is highly recommended and features outstanding views overlooking the surreal natural features of the Kodachrome Basin.