An Insight To Bryce Canyon

There is something truly unique about Bryce Canyon; as soon as you set your eyes on it you find yourself just standing and gazing at the hundreds of sandstone coloured hoodoos and the forest that makes up this beautiful bit of land. I found that views like this never get boring.

Bryce was made a National Park in 1928 but it doesn’t receive as many visitors as other parks like Zion and Arches because of its location in Southwestern Utah. I think this is such a shame and I just couldn’t understand why because it is one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen!

This was the first canyon I saw on my trip to the states and it set the bar very high. By the time I got there I was already beyond tired as I had been up at 4:30 hiking Angels Landing in Zion National Park but nothing was going to stop me enjoying the view and doing another 3 mile hike! I was totally worn out by the end of the day especially as I had only just started to get used to the heat.

What you have to remember when hiking in a canyon is that it’s the easy part first as you’re going downhill, you’ve still got to come back out and the paths are usually very steep! I forgot this part. Once we got deep into the canyon it suddenly hit me how far we’d gone and we tried to find another way to come out but any way you looked at it, it was going to be hard work.

There are a number of different trails to choose from, some easier than others. We combined two of the most popular hikes,the Navajo Loop and the Queens Garden Trail to do a full circuit of all the best viewpoints in the canyon including Sunset point, Wall Street, Queen Victoria (yes, some of the rocks have formed to look like her believe it or not) and Sunrise Point. The fun part is using your imagination to work out what all the rock formations look like. If you think the view from the top is good you should see what its like from the inside! It was definitely worth the exhaustion and all the pulled muscles.

If you are planning on doing any of the trails make sure you have plenty of water and snacks with you to keep you going! Why not take a picnic? I was shocked by the amount of people who were carrying rugs and baskets of food with them and just sitting under a tree with a sandwich watching the world go by. Be sure to keep your eye out for Mule Deer, Elks and badgers!

Because of views like this, hiking became my new favourite thing! It makes you really appreciate the natural beauty of these places. You need to see it with your own eyes to really know what you’ve been missing out on.