Bryce Canyon National Park: the Rim Trail

We’re using some of our days off from the camp host role at Watchman Campground in Zion National Park to visit nearby national parks. On day 1 of our recent mini-vacation, we visited Bryce Canyon National Park.

It’s just 2 hours and 85 miles from Zion. We got the required permit to tow the Airstream thru the narrow and low Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel and headed out the east entrance to the park, then turned north and enjoyed the scenic drive up US-89.

Bryce Canyon and Zion are linked geologically, both part of the Grand Staircase, an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers stretching 100 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park through Zion National Park and into the Grand Canyon.

We had a wonderfully quiet and secluded site in Bryce Canyon’s North Campground, with the wind whispering thru the tall pines.

After setting up camp, we rode the park shuttle bus up to Bryce Point, elevation 8300 ft, and enjoyed a leisurely walk along the Rim Trail back to Sunrise Point. It was very windy, gusting up to 45 mph, so we really had to hold onto our hats!

The graveled, up and down 2.2 mile section of the trail from Bryce Point thru Inspiration Point to Sunset Point offered fantastic views of hoodoos in the Bryce Ampitheater below.

The half mile trail from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point is wide and paved, and more congested. But it still offers great views…

Fun fact: Bryce Canyon is not truly a “canyon”, but a series of bowl-shaped amphitheaters …

Here’s a closer view from the same vantage point, looking back up the rim trail to Bryce Point, where we started …

There are clearly few lawyers in the West, as they’d surely insist on guardrails and fences along the rim. But no, the Rim Trail let’s you take personal responsibility and walk as close to the edge as you dare …

There are formations here reminiscent of the arches in Arches National Park. Except here, they’re called windows. Here's a “window”, part of the Wall of Windows formation, which can be seen in full from the Peekaboo Loop trail …

Before dinner, we met the campground hosts, sharing Airstream tips and tales of volunteering with the National Park Service.

Then it was lights out in preparation for a big hike the next day! Stay tuned.