Bryce Canyon National Park

At the beginning of June 2020, our little family to a week long trip to southwestern Utah! We flew into Las Vegas, picked up our RV and headed towards the mountains. As you all know my now, our favorite way to travel as a family is by RV. I feel like it just gives us the freedom to pack up and go (or stay) as we like. And the great thing about an RV is you can just get up and go – no packing up or checking out, it’s just so easy. I will be sharing all the details of our trip in separate blog posts, but here is the route:

Our first stop was at Bryce Canyon National Park. We ended up boondocking at Toms Best Spring Rd. (FR-117) Panguitch, UT 84759. This is essentially a dirt road off of Highway 12 with lots of dispersed camping spots. The GPS coordinates are 37.7275, -112.2477 if you want to check it out. This put us about 20 minutes from the park entrance!

When going to Bryce Canyon, I highly recommend getting up early to see the sunrise. Our family only had one day to see this National Park, so we needed to make the most of our time! 5:00 am wake up to the rescue! We chose to go to Bryce Point as opposed to Sunrise Point because we wanted less people around. While there is no guarantee, this worked for us and we were 1 of 4 groups there. It’s also worth noting that the path right below the parking lot has some great vantage points as well if the main lookout happens to be very crowded.

Red Canyon Trail Rides

After sunrise we headed back out of the park to Red Canyon Trail Rides. I chose to go horseback riding with them because they allow children 6 and up to ride. Most other places only allow much older riders and since our little girl loves horses more than anything, we knew this would be such a treat. I booked the 1 hour trail ride which takes you right from the paddock along highway 12 back into the ponderosa pines. Our wrangler was an absolute gem, telling us all about the area. Answering all of Sophie’s questions about the horses, it was great. And even though the ride was geared towards a less experienced rider, it was still enjoyable for someone who has ridden before. It was a great opportunity to get out into the back country and see a different side of Utah.

And I think this photo just about sums up how we both felt after the trail ride. I can’t wait to come back when Sophie is older and do a full days ride in Red Rock Canyon.

Queens Garden/ Navajo Trail

Then it was time to head back into the park! We opted to do the Queens Garden/ Navajo Trail loop because it looked like this would allow us to see the most diverse areas of the park in a short time. There is a reason why it’s the most popular trail in the park after all. The trail is 2.9 miles and I would say suited for kids of all ages, you just may need to have a good grip on the for some of the higher up parts. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, check out these shots from our hike:

I hope you enjoyed this post about how to spend the day at Bryce Canyon National Park! I’d love for you to check out my video as well.

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