Salt Lake City Walking Tour
Temple Square, Pioneer Park and the stories behind them, on foot, in three hours.
3 hours
From
$44 per adult
Bryce Canyon National Park 1-Day Tour from Salt Lake City
Hoodoos at Sunrise Point, a rim picnic, and Cedar Mountain on the way home.
- 13 hours
- Hotel pickup included
This tour departs from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. You will be greeted at your hotel by your tour guide around 6:00 am to begin your adventure to Bryce Canyon. As you travel your guide will tell you stories and histories of the area, a history of the park, and of those who first settled the area. They will also begin to explain the unique geology that created the Colorado Plateau and Bryce Canyon.
As you near Bryce Canyon, you are first introduced to the unique rock formations, known as hoodoos, as you travel through Red Canyon. This area is a great introduction to the magnificent and mystical geological formations that are scattered around the region. You will then enter Bryce Canyon and stop at Fairyland, Sunrise, Sunset, and if possible Bryce Point. Each point enables one to experience and witness the unique forces of erosion that carved this beautiful landscape. If time allows, you will also drive out to Natural Bridge viewpoint. You will have an opportunity to walk along the rim between Sunrise and Sunset Points, and if possible down the Navajo or Queen Garden Loops. Weather permitting, you will enjoy a picnic lunch at the rim, overlooking the canyon. If not, you will have lunch at one of the many cafes in the area.
Once finished with lunch and exploring the canyon, you will depart Bryce Canyon and begin our return journey back to your hotel. Usually you will travel across Cedar Mountain on Scenic Byway 14. This offers us the opportunity to see high alpine meadows, overlook Zion Canyon and Deep Creek, and glimpse Cedar Breaks National Monument. We return to your hotel by 6:30pm.
Your day, hour by hour
Itinerary (approximate; times move with the season and the group)6:00 AM
6:00 AM
Hotel pick-up in Salt Lake City and depart south on I-15
TBD
Rest stop en route, with the geology and settlement history of the Colorado Plateau covered on the drive
9:30 AM
Red Canyon on SR-12, the first hoodoo country and an introduction to how this rock erodes
10:00 AM
Enter Bryce Canyon National Park; Fairyland Point, then Sunrise and Sunset Points on the Bryce Amphitheatre rim
12:00 PM
Picnic lunch on the rim overlooking the amphitheatre, weather permitting; otherwise at a nearby cafe
1:00 PM
Rim trail between Sunrise and Sunset Points, and, group and conditions allowing, below the rim on the Navajo Loop or Queen's Garden trail. Bryce Point and Natural Bridge viewpoint if time allows
3:00 PM
Depart Bryce Canyon and return via Scenic Byway 14 over Cedar Mountain, with views toward Zion Canyon, Deep Creek and Cedar Breaks National Monument
6:30 PM
Hotel drop-off in Salt Lake City
What’s included
- Tour Guide
- Comfortable Transportation
- Water & Snacks
- Park Entrance Fees
- Lunch
The route, stop by stop
Red Canyon
On SR-12 just before the park, is the overture. The road passes through two arches cut in vivid red Claron limestone and it’s the first proper hoodoo country you meet. Most groups stop, and it sets up everything your guide has been explaining on the drive down about how this rock behaves.
Fairyland Point is the first viewpoint inside the park boundary and, because it sits before the entrance station, it’s usually the quietest. Good place to get your first look without a crowd behind you.
Sunrise and Sunset Points are the heart of the Bryce Amphitheatre and where the day spends its time. You walk the paved rim trail between them, about half a mile, mostly level, at 8,000 feet, with the whole amphitheatre dropping away on your right. Thor's Hammer is visible below Sunset Point and is the single most photographed hoodoo in the park.
Bryce Point
Conditions and time allowing, gives the widest view of the amphitheatre from its southern end. This is the classic overview shot.
Into the hoodoos
If the group is up for it, the tour drops below the rim on the Navajo Loop or the Queen's Garden trail. This is the thing to do if you can. The hoodoos are impressive from above and overwhelming from underneath, and Wall Street, the slot section of the Navajo Loop, is the best walking on the tour. It is a 500-plus-foot climb back out at altitude, which is the catch.
Natural Bridge
If time allows, on the scenic drive south: an arch of red rock framing green forest, and a very easy roadside stop.
Lunch on the rim
Weather permitting: a picnic looking into the amphitheatre. If the weather is against it, lunch is at one of the cafés nearby.
Scenic Byway 14 home
The return crosses Cedar Mountain at over 9,000 feet through high alpine meadow, with overlooks toward Zion Canyon and Deep Creek and a glimpse of Cedar Breaks National Monument, an amphitheatre very like Bryce, a thousand feet higher, that almost nobody visits.
What to wear and bring
- Layers
- More of them than you packed for Salt Lake City. The rim can be 20 to 30°F cooler than the valley you left at 6:00 AM, and the swing between a shaded overlook and full sun is dramatic. In every season, a warm layer and a windproof one.
- Sun protection
- At 8,000 feet this is a different proposition to sun protection at sea level: roughly a quarter less atmosphere between you and the sun. High-factor sunscreen, sunglasses, brimmed hat, and lip balm.
- Footwear
- Proper shoes with grip. The rim trail is paved but the below-rim trails are steep, dusty and switchbacked, and there’s often ice in shaded sections well into spring.
- Water
- Provided, and bring your own bottle too. Altitude plus dry air dehydrates you quickly, and the climb out of the amphitheatre is where people feel it.
If you’re hiking below the rim, take the altitude seriously. It is a 500-foot-plus ascent to get back out and there’s no shortcut. Go down only as far as you’re confident coming back up.
The drive, and what a private day buys
Salt Lake City to Bryce Canyon is about 270 miles: south on I-15 the length of the state, then east on SR-20 and SR-12 through Red Canyon. Roughly four hours each way. The tour returns by a different road, Scenic Byway 14 over Cedar Mountain, so you aren’t driving the same landscape twice, which matters a great deal on a day this long.
Pickup is around 6:00 AM from your hotel, with the guide narrating the drive down: the geology of the Colorado Plateau, the settlement history of southern Utah, and how the Grand Staircase steps up from the Grand Canyon to Bryce. Return to your hotel by about 6:30 PM.
Because this is a private tour, the itinerary bends to your group. If you want longer below the rim and fewer viewpoints, say so. If somebody needs a slower pace, that’s accommodated without eleven strangers waiting. Included: guide, transport, park entrance fees, lunch, water and snacks.
The operator is also based in Cedar City, about forty minutes from Bryce. This is their home ground rather than a long-distance day trip they have bolted on, and the guides on this route know the country.
Photos
Bryce Canyon National Park 1-Day Tour from Salt Lake City: your questions answered
How far is Bryce Canyon from Salt Lake City?
About 270 miles south, roughly four hours each way via I-15, SR-20 and SR-12. The tour runs about thirteen hours door to door, 6:00 AM to 6:30 PM, and returns by a different route over Cedar Mountain on Scenic Byway 14 so you aren’t driving the same road twice.
Can you book this tour online?
No. This is the one Salt Lake City tour on this site without an online booking calendar. It is a private tour priced per party, so send us your dates and group size through the inquiry form or call, and we’ll confirm and price it directly.
Do we hike down among the hoodoos?
If your group wants to and conditions allow. The Navajo Loop and Queen's Garden trails drop below the rim and are the best part of the day. Hoodoos are impressive from above and overwhelming from underneath. The catch is a climb of more than 500 feet to get back out, at 8,000 feet of altitude. Your guide will tell you whether it suits your party, and there’s a full rim-trail day for groups where it doesn’t.
How high is Bryce Canyon and will the altitude affect me?
The rim runs from about 8,000 to 9,100 feet, which is higher than most visitors expect and nearly 4,000 feet above Salt Lake City. Expect to be more breathless than usual, especially climbing out of the amphitheatre. Drink plenty of water, take it slowly, and tell your guide if you feel unwell.
What is the best time of year to visit Bryce Canyon?
Early October for the best all-round conditions: stable weather, thin crowds and gold aspens on the drive. Summer is comfortable at altitude but busy, with afternoon thunderstorms in July and August. Winter, if you can take the short days, is the most spectacular: snow on orange hoodoos under a deep blue sky, and hardly anyone there.
Are lunch and park fees included?
Yes. The fare covers your guide, transport, Bryce Canyon National Park entrance fees, lunch, water and snacks. Weather permitting lunch is a picnic on the rim overlooking the amphitheatre; if not, it’s at one of the cafés nearby.
Should I do Bryce or Arches if I can only do one?
Bryce, in most of our guides' opinion, if you’ve seen neither. The hoodoo amphitheatres are unlike anywhere else on earth and the altitude keeps it comfortable in summer. Arches is the more famous landscape, photographs more conventionally, and is considerably hotter. Both are thirteen-hour private day trips from Salt Lake City at the same price.
Would I be better off staying overnight in southern Utah?
Almost certainly, if your trip allows it. A day tour from Salt Lake City can only put you at Bryce in the middle of the day, and sunrise and sunset at the rim are a different experience entirely. This tour exists for people whose schedule doesn’t allow an overnight, which is most visitors, and it does that job well. But we would rather say it than not.
Pair this with
The tours our guides most often suggest alongside this one, and why.
1 Day Arches National Park Tour from Salt Lake City
The other private full-day park run: red rock and arches instead of hoodoos and altitude.
Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
A six-hour landscape day if a thirteen-hour one is too much for your trip.
Salt Lake Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience
Bryce has some of the darkest skies in the country; this is the local version, in one evening.
Read before you go
Longer background on where this tour goes, written by the people who run it.
Bryce or Arches: which national park day trip from Salt Lake City?
Both are thirteen-hour private days at the same price. They aren’t the same trip, and for a lot of visitors neither is the right call.
7 min read
Still have a question about the Bryce Canyon National Park 1-Day Tour from Salt Lake City?
Ask us anything the FAQ above did not cover: pickup points, fitness level, what to wear in November. We answer within one business day.
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