"High Altitude Fun" Bryce Canyon National Park by Toughluck

Bryce Canyon National Park Travel Guide: 588 reviews and 1,461 photos

Welcome to Bryce Canyon (Where's the Canyon?)

Life at High Altitudes

Coming to Bryce Canyon from anywhere is a lung expanding event. You'll find that the views take your breath away as does the elevation. The park exists at 7,000 feet, rising to 9,000 feet at the south end. Hiking and camping are enjoyable in the thin dry air. On the other hand, cooking and biking are real demanding experiences.

First Stop, Sunset Point

The Silent City rising from the canyons floor

One day, I was walking from the parking lot up to Sunset Point. I meet a family that was slowing working there way out the trail. From the lot, all you can see are Ponderosa Pines and a bit of blue sky beneath the canopy. "Excuse me," the father said; "What's so interesting about this place?" Thinking a bit, I said "The canyons are gorgeous". The reply: "What Canyons". "Come with me, we'll see them together."

So we all walked out the trails towards the railing as we neared the fence, you could see the look of surprise and wonder spread across all of their faces. There were no further words and I just left them standing at the railing gazing into the most spectacular canyons they've ever seen.

Canyons or Breaks

Myriads of spires and canyons.

Bryce Canyon is actually a 'break' or edge of a plateua. From every view point, there a numeorus canyons. I'd like to say spreading out across the landscape, but from up on the plateua, each canyon actually is moving down and joing with other canyons into the greater 'bowl' that makes up Bryce Canyon. One thing I learned was that inspite of Ebenezer Bryces' famous saying: "Hell of a place to lose a cow!", it really is a place that's hard to get lost in.

Not that you can't become lost from the trail. You may even loose your way back to rim, but you can always find your way out of the canyon. Just head downhill. Each Canyon joins with another until you're in the bottom of the bowl. From there, the dry creek bed travels east to the park boundary and a parking lot. It's then a simple 4 or 5 mile walk into Panquitch.

I didn't say it would be easy to find youself, just that you could.

For more to see, visit my Utah page.

Pros and Cons

Pros:You can't exert yourself, even if you wanted to.
Cons:You can't exert yourself, even if you wanted to.
In a nutshell:It looks like a fantasy land, but it's all reall

Last visit to Bryce Canyon National Park: Oct 1979
Intro Updated Feb 7, 2007
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Reviews (14)

Park Ranger - Bryce Canyon National Park

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Comments (2)

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BruceDunning May 28, 2009 at 1:23 PM

I got the overview and you showed what to see in good manner
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filipdebont Feb 7, 2007 at 9:07 AM

For me this is one of the most beautiful plces in America, that's why I surely want to revisit Bryce next summer