Road Trip to Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
by Jim Kenney
PugSki Travel Correspondent
(All photos by Jim Kenney)
On 10 June 2020 my wife and I made a day-trip from Salt Lake City, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park (BCNP). It was a beautiful day for a drive, sunny and somewhat cooler than recent weeks. The temps in the Salt Lake Valley may have hit 80 degrees. BCNP, even though it's hundreds of miles to the south, is at a fairly high elevation (7900-9100') and the mid-day temps there were a very comfortable 65 degs.
It was a somewhat grueling, 550 mile roundtrip, but we'd never been to BCNP before and I'm a crazy road warrior. We took a partially circular route to maximize the scenic interest during a long car ride. I drove every mile and loved it. My wife did her best to keep me alert by talking a blue streak much of the way. For the outbound leg we took Interstate 15 south for two hundred miles and then cut east on Rt 20 for about 50 miles to reach the park entrance. After entering BCNP there is an 18 mile out-and-back scenic drive, which we completed while making numerous stops at scenic overlooks along the way. For about 150 miles on the return trip we took two country highways (US 89 and Rt 50) that roughly parallel Interstate 15 to the east and through quiet rural areas. We rejoined 15 near little Scipio, UT for the final 120 miles of the trip. We were on the road for almost 12 hours, including about four hours spent sightseeing at BCNP.
Although the park gateway town of Panguitch (rhymes with sandwich and is a cute little place) seemed very quiet, Bryce Canyon City (tourist pit stop immediately outside the park) was quite a bit busier. We were able to find parking at the numerous smaller scenic overlooks in the park, but they were often close to full. I can only assume that we caught the park on a relatively slow day compared to traffic during a nice day in June in pre-covid times? If it was any busier, however, it might have been a little uncomfortable trying to maintain social distancing. The park's shuttle bus system was in operation and I'm sure that's a good option during normal peak times at the park.
I've put my wife through some crazy driving adventures. She's a saint. We stretched our legs at one of the first overlooks inside the park.
Our plan was to drive directly to Rainbow Point at the end of the park's scenic drive and stop at overlooks on the return, but we couldn't help pulling over to see The Natural Bridge at about mile 12. (Several of my photos are panoramic and will enlarge when clicked on.)
Our next stop was at Rainbow Point (elevation 9115') at the southern end of the park's scenic drive. Other than one gas stop on Interstate 15, this was pretty much a totally self-contained trip. We brought food and drinks from home and found a relatively private spot at Rainbow Point to set up our camp chairs for a nice picnic. There are hiking trails here and we took a short walk after lunch in the forest and along the rim of the canyon. Prior to our visit I had no idea this part of the park was over 9000' in elevation. The climb by automobile is deceptive, but I felt the altitude once there.
The next spot in the park where we spent a good bit of time was Inspiration Point at about the 3 mile mark on the scenic drive. It's one of the park highlights and we took a great hike along the canyon rim here including to Upper Inspiration Point at the far right of this panoramic photo. The canyon in the center of this photo is THE Bryce Canyon.
There are tremendous sheer cliffs along much of the canyon rim. We didn't have time to hike down into the canyon. I MUST do a return trip sometime to BCNP!
This is the million dollar view from Upper Inspiration Point and was our last stop on our visit inside BCNP. There was a good little (~250' vertical) climb to get up here. Good thing I did some training by skinning at Alta the day before.
On the return trip to Salt Lake City from BCNP and about 15 miles west of the park there is a very scenic hiking and biking area called Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest.
More of Red Canyon; I still feel like a kid in a geologic candy store driving around Utah. Our Subie passed the 100k mile mark on the odometer during this outing.
On our rural return route to SLC we stopped for a quick visit to Butch Cassidy's boyhood home along US 89 near Circleville, UT. This was a fun surprise that broke up the trip.
There was a plexiglass panel inside the door of Butch's house and I figured out a way to sneak a selfie into this trip report
Our final surprise before returning to Interstate 15; this is Big Rock Candy Mountain where the Sevier River flows with lemonade...at least according to the old hobo song.
Big Rock Candy Mountain song:
by Jim Kenney
PugSki Travel Correspondent
(All photos by Jim Kenney)
On 10 June 2020 my wife and I made a day-trip from Salt Lake City, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park (BCNP). It was a beautiful day for a drive, sunny and somewhat cooler than recent weeks. The temps in the Salt Lake Valley may have hit 80 degrees. BCNP, even though it's hundreds of miles to the south, is at a fairly high elevation (7900-9100') and the mid-day temps there were a very comfortable 65 degs.
It was a somewhat grueling, 550 mile roundtrip, but we'd never been to BCNP before and I'm a crazy road warrior. We took a partially circular route to maximize the scenic interest during a long car ride. I drove every mile and loved it. My wife did her best to keep me alert by talking a blue streak much of the way. For the outbound leg we took Interstate 15 south for two hundred miles and then cut east on Rt 20 for about 50 miles to reach the park entrance. After entering BCNP there is an 18 mile out-and-back scenic drive, which we completed while making numerous stops at scenic overlooks along the way. For about 150 miles on the return trip we took two country highways (US 89 and Rt 50) that roughly parallel Interstate 15 to the east and through quiet rural areas. We rejoined 15 near little Scipio, UT for the final 120 miles of the trip. We were on the road for almost 12 hours, including about four hours spent sightseeing at BCNP.
Although the park gateway town of Panguitch (rhymes with sandwich and is a cute little place) seemed very quiet, Bryce Canyon City (tourist pit stop immediately outside the park) was quite a bit busier. We were able to find parking at the numerous smaller scenic overlooks in the park, but they were often close to full. I can only assume that we caught the park on a relatively slow day compared to traffic during a nice day in June in pre-covid times? If it was any busier, however, it might have been a little uncomfortable trying to maintain social distancing. The park's shuttle bus system was in operation and I'm sure that's a good option during normal peak times at the park.
I've put my wife through some crazy driving adventures. She's a saint. We stretched our legs at one of the first overlooks inside the park.
Our plan was to drive directly to Rainbow Point at the end of the park's scenic drive and stop at overlooks on the return, but we couldn't help pulling over to see The Natural Bridge at about mile 12. (Several of my photos are panoramic and will enlarge when clicked on.)
Our next stop was at Rainbow Point (elevation 9115') at the southern end of the park's scenic drive. Other than one gas stop on Interstate 15, this was pretty much a totally self-contained trip. We brought food and drinks from home and found a relatively private spot at Rainbow Point to set up our camp chairs for a nice picnic. There are hiking trails here and we took a short walk after lunch in the forest and along the rim of the canyon. Prior to our visit I had no idea this part of the park was over 9000' in elevation. The climb by automobile is deceptive, but I felt the altitude once there.
The next spot in the park where we spent a good bit of time was Inspiration Point at about the 3 mile mark on the scenic drive. It's one of the park highlights and we took a great hike along the canyon rim here including to Upper Inspiration Point at the far right of this panoramic photo. The canyon in the center of this photo is THE Bryce Canyon.
There are tremendous sheer cliffs along much of the canyon rim. We didn't have time to hike down into the canyon. I MUST do a return trip sometime to BCNP!
This is the million dollar view from Upper Inspiration Point and was our last stop on our visit inside BCNP. There was a good little (~250' vertical) climb to get up here. Good thing I did some training by skinning at Alta the day before.
On the return trip to Salt Lake City from BCNP and about 15 miles west of the park there is a very scenic hiking and biking area called Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest.
More of Red Canyon; I still feel like a kid in a geologic candy store driving around Utah. Our Subie passed the 100k mile mark on the odometer during this outing.
On our rural return route to SLC we stopped for a quick visit to Butch Cassidy's boyhood home along US 89 near Circleville, UT. This was a fun surprise that broke up the trip.
There was a plexiglass panel inside the door of Butch's house and I figured out a way to sneak a selfie into this trip report
Our final surprise before returning to Interstate 15; this is Big Rock Candy Mountain where the Sevier River flows with lemonade...at least according to the old hobo song.
Big Rock Candy Mountain song:
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