Family Friendly Hikes at Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of our families' favorite parks. Since we started RVing fulltime and saw other families going to this National Park I knew that it was a must see.

We boondocked at Tom's Best Spring Road which was approximately 10 miles from the Bryce Canyon National Park Visitor Center. This road starts at Highway 12 and part of the road is in the Dixie National Forest. 

We did three hikes in Bryce Canyon National Park, all that were very family friendly. 

Mossy Cave to Waterfall: 1.0 mile

Mossy Cave trail is one of the lowest elevation hikes in the park as well as one of the only hikes that begins with a climb and ends with a descent. Most of the hikes in this park begin with a descent and end with a climb. The trail is 0.4 miles in length one-way, and forks to provide access to Water Canyon in one direction. The view at the end is a sheltered overhang known as Mossy Cave. I do have to say that it was a bit uneventful considering our kids thought that we were actually going to see a cave rather than an overhang. BUT it was a beautiful area, the kids loved playing in the water AND if you venture off the trail a bit there is a waterfall. If you get into town in the morning or early afternoon and want to look around this would be a great short hike as it is on the park boundry and not as close to the other hikes.

Queens Garden to Navajo Loop: 3.3 miles

We woke up before sunrise and parked at sunrise point, hiked down Queen's Garden which descends about 320 feet. There are multiple options to hike this area but we chose this route as it is considered the least difficult trail entering the canyon from the rim. As you go down into the Queen's Garden there are many hoodoos, which if you use your imagination, you are able to see Queen Victoria at the end of the trail, looking over the garden before her. We then hopped onto the Navajo loop. This iconic Navajo Loop Trail has two sides: the Two Bridges side and the Wall Street side. We went on the Two Bridges side which could be hiked as an out and back if you didn't want to combine them. We went up the Navajo loop doing the switchbacks between narrow walls of colorful limestone up to sunset point. You will look down at tower fir trees and the hoodoos. The entire loop took us about 1 hour and 20 miles for the 3.3 mile hike. 

If you are unable to go down into the canyon you can park at either sunrise or sunset point and there is a paved trail/walkway with benches. From this walkway on the rim you can observe the stunning hoodoos in the canyon of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Bristle Comb Loop Trail: 1.1 miles

This trail is accessed from Rainbow Point which is at the southern end of the national park. This trail is beautiful and mostly a gravel path along bristlecone pines that are up to 1,800-years-old. The kids loved this hike as we saw quite a bit of wildlife such as, woodpeckers, owls, squirrels and chipmunks. There is a decent sized parking area at Rainbow Point and you can look out at some stunning views at this spot even if you don't do the trail.