Bryce Canyon

While Zion has 4.5 million visitors in a year, Bryce has “only” 2.6 million visitors. However, Zion seems to manage their visitors better plus the majority of the 2.6 MM visitors spend most of their time on the overlooks so finding a parking spot can be difficult. We tried twice but never found a parking spot at the most popular viewpoint (Inspiration Point). We couldn’t find a spot at Sunset Point either but were given a hint by someone we met at another overlook. If you can’t get a spot at Sunset, take the lodge road. There are overflow parking lots available here and you can easily walk to Sunset and Sunrise Points.

Pictures from some of the other viewpoints.

An ogre.

Natural Bridge.

Once you take a trail, there are much fewer people. We visited Bryce in 2004. One of our major memories was of Wall Street. It is a section of switchbacks to drop down into the canyon. It was fun this time too.

However, I don’t remember being as scared of heights back then. I was hugging the walls even though the real drop wasn’t that bad.

Rocks and a tree.

Queens Garden

On the way up at Sunrise Point we played leapfrog with three women from Hawaii. One group would stop to rest while the other group walked on. Then the other group would rest. By the end we were both resting at the same time. I’m still not in shape for this. As I’m writing this I did some online checking. At Zion we were at 4,000-5,000 feet elevation. At Bryce, we were at 8,000-9,000 feet above sea level. Home in Florida is only 20 feet. No wonder I was breathing hard!