8 Things To Do in Bryce Canyon National Park With Kids

Why Visit Bryce: This is my favorite National park we’ve visited so far. The rock formations are otherworldly. I had a hard time convincing myself we weren’t on Mars! The main hike is pretty kid friendly. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Bryce Canyon with kids!

When to Go: Unlike Zion and much of Southern Utah, Bryce Canyon is pretty temperate in the summer. It’s at a mountain elevation so it hovers around 65-75 for most of the summer. When we visited there were even some summer thunderstorms! The wintertime has beautiful snow on the rocks. Really anytime is a good time to visit, but more hiking trails will be open in the summer.

Entering a National Park: The one day fee is $35/car and it’s $80 for a pass. The can get in for free if you have a 4th grader! The pass works at tons of other National Parks around the US and some other places too.

1) Ruby’s Inn: We stayed at Ruby’s Inn right at the Bryce Canyon entrance. It was about $200 a night and breakfast was included. This was no hand-you-a-bag-of-carbs breakfast. It was a full cowboy breakfast with biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and eggs. We also ate dinner there once (not included with your stay, about $24/person) and I would highly recommend their Western buffet and soft serve.

The rooms were a little older, but they were quiet. Plus you cannot beat the location. It’s right at the park’s edge! Apparently it’s been here as long as Bryce Canyon has been taking tourists. There are lots of semi-creepy pictures in the rooms and dining areas to remind you of this fact. There’s also a campground, RV park, and pretty decent General Store that has groceries and a gift shop.

2) Bryce Canyon Visitor’s Center: The visitor’s center is always a good place to start. They can tell you what hikes are closed and it gives a good overview of the history of the park. This visitor’s center in particular has some great places for kids to play. We enjoyed learning about Ebenezer Bryce, the Mormon settler for whom the canyon is named and about how hoodoo (the rock stacks) get formed. 

Make sure to pick up your junior ranger booklets here. We also got our kids some binoculars which helped them on the hike. 

3) Queen’s Garden / Navajo Loop: We did exactly one big hike and this was it! It took us through everything we wanted to see, was about 3 miles and the kids did great (mostly, there was some whining). There are some steep cliffs so make sure you hang onto your kids’ hands or have them in the hiking backpack. 

You’re going to want to start your hike from Sunrise Point (park there!), follow signs for Queen’s Garden trail. Then traverse down between the hoodoos, and then you’ll reach the flat part as you walk across the canyon. Do the quick out and back path to Queen’s Garden. Make sure your kid takes a picture with the medallion on the sign! If they take a photo with three of them they get a prize from the visitor’s center. 

The Queen’s Garden hike ends here. You can go back up the way you came or hop onto the Navajo Trail. Do this and keep going across the flat part of the canyon. When the trail splits, stay left on the Navajo Trail. This will take you to Wall Street. This is a series of short switchbacks that will take you up to Sunset Point. From there, you’ll walk across the top of the canyon back to Sunrise Point. This hike will show you all the best parts of Bryce including Thor’s Hammer and the rock that looks like Queen Victoria!

4) Scenic Drive and Lookout Points: Bryce Canyon is only about 18 miles long. If you drive all the way to the back you’ll pass a few different lookout points. The ones you want to stop at and check out are Natural Bridge, Rainbow Bridge, and Paria Point. Natural Bridge was definitely my favorite!

5) Mossy Cave: This is a very short 0.4 mi out and back walk that takes you to a small waterfall along a stream bed. We did it near the end of the day so we let the kids run wild and go in the water. Funny how kids will hike forever if there are rocks and rivers but refuse to hike on a straight path??

6) Bryce Wildlife Adventure: If you experience inclement weather (or even if you don’t!) go check out this museum. It’s one of the best taxidermy museums in the US! I will say though that this museum has a few specimens I am surprised they are allowed to have. They must be very old (like 70+ years!) because many of the animals are highly illegal to kill and taxidermy.

They have a jaguar, a giraffe, tons of butterflies, deer, and a huge variety of the animals you’ll see at Bryce. Look for the Kudu with the twisted horns on the second floor! That is a one in a million specimen. They also have live deer and goats you can feed out back. The museum is about $8/adult and $6/kid. 

7) The Rodeo: This unfortunately got rained out while we were there but there is a rodeo Wed-Sat almost every night of the summer. Tickets go on sale at 4 PM every day and it’s right across the street from Ruby’s Inn!