Zion & Bryce w/3 kids in April

[Anonymous]

Great trip report!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great trip report!!

Thanks!! I’m not done yet I’ll go through days 7/8.

[Anonymous]

Day 4:
This day was cold and rainy. It looked like the rain might hold out until 10-11am so we decided to go in to the park at 8am again and see how long the rain would hold out. It was forecasted to rain the whole day.
At 8am the shuttles were empty.
We took the shuttle to Weeping Rock and did that short trail. It was worth doing.
We took the shuttle to Court of the Patriarchs and did that view point then I read you get another good view of it if you cross the road and do 0.5 mi up Sand bench trail. I agree - we did that too. (It was a little hard to find the path). We still only had a few sprinkles at this point and went to stop 2 - Zion Museum where we did a ranger program. Since it was now raining we went inside the museum to look around and caught the 22 minute Zion intro movie. Then we went back to the hotel for baths, rest for a bit, etc.
Then in the later afternoon (still raining), we went back to the visitor center where the kids turned in their Jr. ranger packets. There were VERY low crowds this entire day at the park and there was no line for the shuttle back in. We had reservations at the Red Rock Grill in the Zion Lodge for dinner. I made reservations in advance and you really needed to. We saw them turning people away who tried to walk in for dinner. We all enjoyed our dinner there!
Overall we think we made the best out of the rainy day.

[Anonymous]

Day 5, Part 1: Wrapping up Zion
Packed up rooms, and got a little bit of a later start this day (8:30am) because we had to get out of rooms and load up cars.
Took shuttle to Angel’s landing. Re: Angel’s landing - my advice is if you’re interested but not sure if you can do the whole thing - just do as much as you feel like. The very beginning is totally easy and has very nice views IMO.
My mom is having foot pain and didn’t do much hiking at all. She got off at most shuttle stops with us and would walk around a bit but then wait for us if we were doing a hike. She says she still feels like she saw a lot this way and that it was beautiful scenery to rest with. Anyway, she and my 7 year old did a very little bit at the beginning of the Angel’s landing trail and then hung out to wait for us. I started the trail with my dad, my sister, my husband, my 9 y/o, and I was wearing the 4 year old. DH asked if I wanted him to carry her but I carried her bc I knew he wanted to do the whole thing and I was just going to stay as far as the 9 y/o wanted. I wouldn’t say the part that I did was hard exactly but it really started to be a LOT of uphill hiking. I would say my 9 y/o and I made it a little less than 1 mile up the trail before turning around. The rest of the group continued up. (They think if they knew they weren’t going to do the chain part they would have encouraged my 9 y/o to stay with them the whole time).

I went back down with my 9 y/o and 4 y/o. At the very beginning of the trail we had seen three river access points. We decided to get my mom and 7 y/o and to one of the river access points, and wait for the rest of the group. The kids had a blast playing there for an hour or so. Honestly that is probably one of their favorite parts of the Zion trip. The rest of the group made it to the chain part of the trail but spoke with other hikers and learned it would have been another two hours to wait and do the last part with the lines for the chains, so they went to a western rim lookout which they thought also had a good view and no wait. They were not too disappointed that they didn’t do the whole thing.
Then we hiked the grotto trail to the Lodge then took shuttle back to entrance to get on the road. We were sad to leave!

Other Zion things I don’t think I mentioned yet:
Wildlife: my kids liked spotting wildlife. I think we saw: a frog, rock squirrels, mule deer with big ears, lots of turkeys, and big beetles.

Restaurants - I mentioned already where we went. I had also considered trying spotted dog (and bit & spur as mentioned) but just didn’t have time to get to them all!

I also can’t remember if I cleared this up already - but originally I had booked 2 nights in Vegas, 2 nights at Cable mountain, and 2 nights at Bryce Lodge. Then about a month before we left, the adults in my group decided they wanted to try 1 night in Vegas and 3 nights at Zion. At first I couldn’t add a third night at cable mountain for all 3 rooms so I had booked us all one night at another Springdale hotel, but I kept calling Cable Mountain and eventually I was able to get 3 nights for all 3 rooms at cable mountain! I was so happy!

Since we went to Walmart we ate all breakfasts in our room. Re: most lunches, I had heard the lodge could get crowded so we might want to bring lunch in with us (including buying a hiker’s wrap in a Springdale restaurant on the way in). Since I had heard that, I brought with us a lunch cooler and ice packs from home. We didn’t end up buying wraps in town - I ended up making lunches (nothing fancy - lunchables, PB&J) with the groceries we had and bringing that with us and we thought that worked well.

Overall I think we had a good amount of time in Zion. We couldn’t do everything but I think we still did a lot and didn’t feel rushed.

[Anonymous]

Day 5, Part 2: heading to Bryce
I suppose this is a good point to talk about the fact that there were various closures at Zion (there were also closures at Bryce). In Zion, the Narrows, upper emerald pool trail, kayenta trail, and the Zion Mt Carmel highway were all closed. The closure that I cared most about was the highway, because that would have made the drive to Bryce shorter and I would have also liked to see some East entrance stuff. But as Zion IG says: geologic time includes NOW and we were in Zion to see nature and these closures happened as part of nature. For the most part, I wasn’t bothered by the closures. You can’t do everything on your first visit and we had more than enough to do as is it was.

So, we hit the road to Bryce and this drive also had pretty views. It took about 2 hr 45 mins taking the longer route since the Zion Mt Carmel highway was closed.

Checked in to The lodge at Bryce Canyon - the only in-park lodging. I made these reservations a year in advance.
I think national park lodges are in great natural locations but “rustic” in general (low on amenities and no TV for example), but we are all glad we stayed in-park at Bryce. It was really the most convenient option. The food situation in Bryce left a little to be desired. There was the lodge restaurant (which was good), a general store, and a pizza place. It turned out the pizza place was not open for the season yet.
This first night we were not planning for a sit down dinner, but DH went to the general store and said he couldn’t eat anything there, so we had dinner at lodge (which was good, no wait to be seated).

From our hotel room it was a 3 min walk to sunset point - we walked over before bed to see the views.
It was cold in Bryce this night.

(Some people we met stayed in Zion and did Bryce as a day trip).
The lodge internet service was really poor and no cell phone service.

[Anonymous]

Day 6:
At the lodge we got 3 rooms (two queens in each room) and I had one kid sleep in my parents’ room each night.
This day some of us woke up to see the sunrise over Bryce Canyon (just a quick walk from the lodge!!). It was pretty cool but also FREEZING and it turns out that I am more of a sunset over the ocean type of girl. After the sunrise, we went to breakfast at the lodge, which was pretty good.

Then we went to the visitor’s center for the first time and planned our day.
There are 4 main lookout points in Bryce canyon - sunset, sunrise, inspiration and Bryce point. We could easily walk to sunrise and sunset, and we drove to inspiration and Bryce point. I think it is worth going to see the inspiration and Bryce point lookouts. Bryce point was my fave.
Then we saw a ranger talk on Hodoo geology and FYI learned that Bryce is not actually a Canyon (but Zion is).
Then we hiked Queens garden trail and I thought it was really cool to go down into the hodoos. We saw 2 groups of people we had met in Zion in Bryce. My 7 y/o complained about the hike back up. We left my 4 y/o with my parents who drove to 3 additional lookout points (swamp canyon, farview and natural bridge - others were closed), since my mom couldn’t do Queen’s garden and my dad did it on his own the evening before (and this evening again). Navajo loop was closed.
This day there was a 30 minute wait for lunch at the lodge. I’m speculating that since most people don’t stay in the park, and are in for the day, that lunch is the busiest meal of the day with fewer people around for breakfast and dinner. We didn’t want to wait, had big breakfasts and early dinner reservations, so we got the kids ice cream from the general store and rested for a couple hours, and DH did Tower Bridge trail on his own.

Based on a hot tip from a work acquaintance, we had dinner reservations at 5pm at Stone Hearth Grill (about 20 mins away in Tropic) and mossy cave trail was on the way. The mossy cave itself was a little underwhelming but we let the kids go down to see the waterfall which was cool. We should have left ourselves more time and / or not let the kids play in the waterfall before dinner bc one ended up a muddy mess and we had to go to a fine dining restaurant. Pro tip - do mossy cave on your way home from dinner in Tropic if there’s enough light or make sure you have a change of clothes.

This was indeed a very hot tip. Stone Hearth Grill is definitely a must do if you’re a foodie (we are only aspiring foodies) - it turned out to be one of our fave restaurants anywhere! It’s fine dining and you NEED reservations. We had the kids with us for dinner and we saw other people there with kids - probably because of being on vacation like us.

While the morning was so cold, the day ended up warming up to 60 degrees. I didn’t get altitude sick but I think we were all tired (both actually tired and altitude making us tired) and probably not drinking enough.

Our tiredness this day, I think solidified for us couldn’t have added in Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, or the Grand Canyon. I even really wanted to go to Snow Canyon - recommended in this thread and someone also recommended it IRL to my dad. But with 3 kids ages 4-9, we really pushed ourselves to the limit with this itinerary as it was! We didn’t get to do everything but you really can’t ever do everything in one trip! We have to go back! Stay tuned for our last fun day when we skied out west for the first time!

[Anonymous]

OK, here is the final installment - day 7/8! We spent a full week out west, and flew out at 6am on Day 8, so it doesn't get its own post

Day 7:
Woke up, breakfast at Bryce Lodge, packed up, checked out and headed out for a half day of skiing at Brian Head Resort on our way back to Las Vegas.
This was our first time skiing out West and we all loved it! It was the end of the ski season (the resort closed for the season two days after we left) and it was very low crowds this day. My kids had lessons and we thought the ski instructors were both great, and we of course thought the snow conditions were a lot better than what we are used to on the east coast. We want to go back! (For real). I heard there was a lot of snow out West this year, so had an "epiphany" that we might be able to ski while in Utah for spring break, so I found this place just by googling around looking for what ski options there were near Bryce/Zion. I really didn't know anything about this place but we decided to give it a shot. In general, it seems like it is a lower cost resort with lower crowds, good instructors, good snow conditions generally, some slow moving lifts (but no lines), and an expert might not think it's hard enough for them - but we are definitely not experts - so we were super happy and it was right up our alley. I have never been to a ritzy ski resort out west, but if that's your thing, this one is different from that, I believe.

Then we drove back to Vegas, staying overnight at Hampton Inn & Suites Las Vegas Airport. I knew we weren't going to be at the hotel long this night (we had a 6am flight, and would need to wake up at 3:30am to catch a 4am hotel shuttle to the airport), so I was just looking for something cheaper with easy airport access and this hotel definitely fit the bill. Since I didn't think we'd get much sleep this night as it was, I only got one room with two queen beds and a roll away bed.

My parents and sister did NOT ski - and instead they drove to the East Entrance of Zion on the way out of Bryce, seeing checkerboard mesa and big horn sheep and then also went to Hoover Dam before taking a red eye flight out of Vegas.

Day 8 for my family of 5:
Up at 3:30am / out on 4am free shuttle to airport from the lobby - which was too early for the free breakfast offered, but they had a little free breakfast out for us earlier risers, including fruit, yogurt, granola bars and coffee out - which I thought was really nice.
Then we flew out - we were sad to leave after a great trip, but glad to come home our house too!

Overall, it was a great trip. We loved it and are happy we went. I knew going in that this was going to be "traveling" as opposed to "vacationing." It was definitely fine, but a little less relaxing to be changing hotels so often and really living out the suitcases because unpacking barely seemed worth it.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the trip as best as I can. Thanks again for all the advice - I really appreciate it and I will continue to pass around this link when I see people asking for Utah advice! We really do want to go back and check out other things we didn't get to do. The animal sanctuary seemed too far this trip, but I think my 7 y/o, in particular, would really love it so I'll have to try to get there sometime - along with snow canyon, the east entrance of Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, and Capitol Reef, and the Grand Canyon and maybe even the narrows and the top of Angel's Landing!

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah - I def wanted to do Grand Staircase Escalante too, and we just didn't have time!!

[Anonymous]

That sounds like such a fun trip! I am one of the PPs who suggested Snow Canyon. My family fell in love with Utah - so much so that we are planning to go back this summer as a driving trip from where we live (which is in flyover country). It sounds like you loved it too!