Welcome to our National Park series, where each week I will be highlighting a national park that my family and I have visited in 2020/2021. This year my son is in 4th grade which meant that he qualified for the Every Kid Outdoor Pass. The Every Kid Outdoor Pass is a free pass for 4th graders that gives 4th graders and their families free access to hundreds of parks, lands, and waters for an entire year! This includes our National Parks and many other government agencies. This year was our year of National Park vacations and since September we have visited over 10 parks with plans to visit more this summer! If you are also interested in visiting some of our national treasures, I hope that my experience can help you to prepare and have a great family trip.
I have to start this article with a cautionary tale. Before going to Bryce Canyon we were supposed to go to Zion Nation Park. Well, I didn't understand that we needed to reserve shuttle tickets a month in advance. Zion can get very busy and to deal with that they have implemented a shuttle only service in the parks. You can not drive your car on the roads of most of the park, the only way to get around is their shuttles. They do have shuttle tickets available the night before, and we tried that, the tickets were gone in a matter of seconds. So, if you plan a trip to Zion, research way ahead of time about getting the shuttle tickets so you are ready!
After our Zion mishap, we headed over to Bryce Canyon National Park. We were able to explore Bryce Canyon in an easy day, but we did only one short hike. If you wanted to do more hiking, I would suggest at least a day and a half, if not two days. Here are 5 ways to have fun at Bryce Canyon National Park!
1. Find the Hoodoos - The whatdos you may ask? Hoodoos! And, boy are they cool! Side note, I do think Hoodoo is one of my favorite words. Hoodoos are simply irregular stacked rocks and while they can be found all over the world, Bryce Canyon has the largest concentration found anywhere on Earth. They are easy to find , as they are all over Bryce Canyon. We took the free park shuttle around to all the popular viewpoints to really get a good look at things. The bus drivers were also a great source of information.
2. Hiking - Bryce Canyon has several easy to moderate hikes that can be done in a few hours. The Queen's Garden and the Navajo Loop are the most popular. You can do both of those together to form a loop, by going down Navajo Loop and back up the Queen's Garden, you avoid going up the steep hill of the Navajo Loop. To make the hike even more fun, Bryce Canyon has an activity called "Hike the Hoodoos" Part hike, part scavenger hunt, visitors must hike at least 3 miles on specially-marked trails and find "Hike the Hoodoos" benchmark survey markers along the way.
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3. Become a Junior Ranger - You can download the Bryce Canyon Junior Ranger book and get started as soon a you arrive to the park. Printed copies of the book are also available at the visitor center.
4. Scenic Drive - Grab your GyPsy Guide app and take an 18 mile scenic drive . You get to see the other side of the park, a place the shuttle doesn't go to, and see many different geological formations. It only took us a few hours and was well worth it.
5. Star Gazing - Bryce Canyon is not only known for its Hoodoos, but it is also known for its astronomy & night sky programs. If you find yourself at Bryce Canyon I really suggest checking to see if a Constellation Tour is happening.
While we were visiting Bryce Canyon National Park, we stayed at Ruby's Inn which has a beautiful hotel as well as an RV Park and campground. Ruby's Inn is only a few miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon and also has a Bryce Canyon shuttle stop, you don't even have to drive your car into the park to catch the shuttle, it is all right there for you at the hotel. They have many amenities to keep the whole family happy. A large indoor pool, a huge general store, several restaurants, and during the summer months they do a nightly country music dinner show , rodeos and other entertainment. We very much enjoyed our stay at Ruby's Inn!
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I hope you have a great trip to Bryce Canyon National Park!
Check out the other parks in our National Park Series
Family Fun at Mount Rushmore National Monument
Family Fun at Badlands National Park
*Ruby's Inn hosted me and my family in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.
Keep finding your family fun -
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