Location:

Southwestern Utah, 270 miles south of Salt Lake City, perched at 7,894 feet

Vital Stats:

Nearest airports: Las Vegas, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Both are about 270 miles from the park. There are smaller airports in Cedar City, Utah (80 miles), and St. George, Utah (125 miles).

Established: February 25, 1928

Size: 35,835 acres

Park website: http://www.nps.gov/brca

Snapshot

One of the Colorado Plateau's masterpieces of nature (Grand Canyon, Zion, and Canyonlands are just a few of its esteemed neighbors), Bryce Canyon National Park is a visually arresting land of pinkish-red spires and fins and arches that appear to change shape and hue in the shifting Southwestern light.

Did You Know?

Nineteenth-century Mormon settler Ebenezer Bryce, for whom the park is named, said it was "a hell of a place to lose a cow." The canyon's remarkable collection of whimsical hoodoo spires were believed by the early Paiute Indians to be people frozen in stone by the mischievous spirit Coyote. Early geologists feared the hoodoos would transform into humans.

Scenic Drive

In the summer months, the park offers visitors a free shuttle that stops at the most popular viewpoints, trails, and facilities along the central Bryce Amphitheater. Leave your car outside the park, and hop on and off the shuttle as often as you'd like. Riding the shuttle is convenient and alleviates traffic and parking congestion.

Or forge off on your own by driving 18 miles along the rim of the horseshoe-shaped Bryce Amphitheater to Rainbow Point, rolling through meadows, ponderosa pines, and conifer forests, stopping for dramatic views of the luminous rock formations.