Hiking Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon is the most magical place in the United States. I know.. who am I to make such a bold statement, but it is unlike anything you will ever see in the United States. Utah in general is crazy beautiful. There are so many orange and red colored rocks that tower over you, reminding you that we are so small in this world. You might even lose your breath a few times when you take a step back and take in Bryce Canyon as a whole.

When Chase and I were planning our Utah and Arizona van road trip to visit the National Parks and canyons, we knew we had to visit Bryce Canyon or it would be one big, massive regret.

Bryce Canyon draws in over a million people a YEAR! Luckily, we went at the most perfect time and saw hardly anyone. We spent 5-6 hours hiking around Bryce Canyon on one of the most fascinating trails, Peek-a-Boo Loop trail. It will not disappoint!

OMW to Bryce Canyon

After we hiked around Zion, we made the 80 minute drive to Hatch, Utah (about 30 minutes from Bryce Canyon). Once we found out temperatures were dropping to single digits, we thought a campsite with an outlet would be best… for our little space heater (A for effort). So, we found Riverside Ranch and it was cold, but excellent. It’s a night I’ll never forget because guys, I really underestimated how cold six degrees is when you’re sleeping in a van.

Sleeping in Hatch, Utah

We were the only one’s at the camp site, which makes since because it was freezing. The temperature dropped to SIX DEGREES. DO YOU HEAR ME?!?! SIX. We listened to coyotes howl throughout the night as we sat by our camp fire to stay warm. It was so cold that the fire was barely doing enough – I could feel the cold piercing through my gloves. We couldn’t even put our chairs away and had to throw them into the front seat because it was that frigid.

Thankfully, Escape Campervans gave us a space heater because they knew we were headed this way. The space heater kept us warm..enough, but I wouldn’t even say we were warm. I slept in wool socks, two pairs of pants, Chase’s gloves, a beanie and we had to curl up next to each other all night to stay warm.

Peek-a-Boo Loop Trail

You need to really mentally prepare yourself for this one, guys. Peek-a-Boo loop trail is an AMAZING trail because it’s crazy to be surrounded by the golden and orange hoodoos. But, it’s also really hard  because you’re going down pretty steep for 30 minutes and all of a sudden you’re on the canyon floor (and will have to hike back up THAT…). Once you make it down from the top about a mile, you’ll pick a path to start the three mile loop. It will take you up, down, around, and on some insane switchbacks (I’m crying thinking about them).

Peek-a-Boo loop trail is about 5.5. miles long… it took us about 6-7 hours.

Hiking in Snow

Hiking in March was one of the best decisions because not only is it beautiful to see the contrasting colors, but there are hardly ANY people around. We saw maybe 10 other hikers in a six hour window.

However…. hiking in the snow means the trails were narrow, icy, and snowy. Something that helped me a ton were my YakTrax (chains/traction cleats for your shoes to prevent you from slipping). The YakTrax made me feel safe when I had to walk on ice several times. I purchased mine from the Zion National Park visitor center because Zion was even icier, especially with their insane switchbacks.

Update July 18, 2019 – Chase purchased a pair of chains for his hiking boots from REI. We both used our Yaktrax in March ’19 and hiked on five feet of solid snow in Sequoia National Park.

Hoodoos

These big, tall, unique lookin’ orange things are called hoodoos. The crazy thing about the hoodoo formation is that it’s a result from going through so many different weather processes each year which cause erosion to create these beautiful rocks. They are seriously massive and you have no idea how small you are until you’re on the canyon floor while one is hovering over you at 100 feet.

Bye, Bryce

I have visited a handful of National Parks and Bryce Canyon continues to remain my favorite National Park. It’s an indescribable park because there is just nothing else like it. I loved having the park to ourselves in the snow, it was so peaceful and still. Bryce Canyon is definitely the best place Chase and I have ever had lunch.

By the end of the hike, we were exhausted and could not handle anymore freezing weather, so we headed south to the dune in Arizona. Our full route can be viewed here 🙂 And if you’re planning a trip to Zion (you should), I talk about camping and hiking here!

last updated: July 18, 2019