Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
There’s a certain “love the one you’re with” aspect to judging things. Whether books, or movies, or music, or – in this case – national parks, we often give preference to our most recent experience. Still bathed in the glow of something amazing it is difficult to rank older experiences objectively. Was that incredible place we just left really that much better than the incredible place we visited earlier in the year? We can’t sample them back to back in a blind taste test. Which is probably why our annual “Best Of” travel articles are always so hard to put together. It’s also why this particular post is expressed in the form of a question.
We can’t say for certain that Bryce is the best of the 62 national parks that we’ve now visited. There are so many wonderful places. Some we love for the singular experience we had while there, like having our campground overrun by a herd of bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The best places, though, are the ones that completely take us by surprise. The Grand Canyon, as incredible as it is, is somehow made smaller because of its familiarity. It’s exactly what you expect, only more so.
The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, Yellowstone in Wyoming and most recently Bryce in Utah all caught us totally unaware. More than that, each place created some dissonance between what we were seeing and what we thought we should see. The Sand Dunes didn’t seem like something we’d find in the U.S. Yellowstone didn’t feel like something that should even be on this planet. And walking among the towering hoodoos of Bryce made us feel like we weren’t in a national park at all, but touring the ruins of a three thousand year old city in a place like Turkey or Egypt.
Part of the illusion comes from the amazing way nature has of constructing things that look as if they were built by craftsmen, like these grottos.
Elsewhere the color and quality of the dusty trails and rock walls give the impression that they were built out of the same materials ancient civilizations used to raise their cities.
Shannon hunkers down in what could be a Babylonian alleyway.
Watching the sun rise over these formations felt like witnessing the dawn of a completely different era. That’s something that is pretty hard to top.
And yet we haven’t been everywhere so tell us what we’ve missed. Share with us your favorite U.S. park and what it is that sets it apart?
Everywhere Once 
Yes this place is AMAZING
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My impression of Bryce Canyon, based on photos taken by family or friends, was basically “no big deal”. But I took my kids because we were in the area and doing the grand sweep of parks and they dragged me down down down into the canyon, promising to help drag me back up later. Hiking into the canyon is the ONLY way to appreciate it and I recommend it to all as long as they can walk, albeit slowly. What a feeling to be among the pillars. Wow.
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Bryce is our favorite national park.
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Gosh that looks incredible! Love the idea of walking among a national park, where it takes your breath away – stunning colour and designs.
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This is lovely. While out West, I suggest Badlands National Park. The colors are incredible. I visited when I was in southwestern South Dakota for the Leading Ladies Marathon. Another suggestion, although not a national park is to take a stop by Spearfish Canyon, a long, narrow canyon which is most of the 26-mile route for the marathon.
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Certainly agree about the badlands . . . https://everywhereonce.com/2011/11/04/badlands-national-park-sd/ . . . although we somehow missed Spearfish Canyon. Next time, I guess.
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Almost looks like a city of cathedrals.
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I felt the same about the Grand Canyon–it was somehow expected. Yellowstone, for all I’d heard and seen about it, surpassed expectations. And one of the reasons I love Arches Nat’l Park is that it, like you say, took me completely by surprise.
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These photos are awe inspiring. Majestic might be a better explanation. As you said, it looks almost as if it were built!!!!!
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LOVE the photographs. That first one is truly spectacular.
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Looks amazing! I love the Utah parks. I have always loved the Grand Canyon, but I think it becomes much better if you get a chance to raft down the river… great experience and makes you nostalgic every time you see the canyon afterwards!
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Couldn’t agree more: https://everywhereonce.com/2012/06/22/go-big-or-go-home-a-grand-canyon-rafting-adventure/
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Now that you mention it, Bryce does look like it could sub for other places. The one that comes to mind for me is the fairy-chimney region of Cappadocia, Turkey. Amazing Bryce-like formations that people actually hollowed out and lived in. Bryce is in the top few, no doubt about it, but I would also like to throw in Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. Pretty awesome with lava rivers flowing into the sea. However, timing is everything, when it comes to lava flows, and I haven’t been able to make it over to the Big Island to see the spectacle—yet.
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Bryce was OK… but definitely not the top of my favorite parks. I’d have a hard time choosing a number one given Zion, Arches, Glacier and Redwoods just for starters.
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Bryce is gorgeous. We explored it in snow,which added even another layer of beauty because of the contrast between the white and ochre. It’s small, though. For extended interest, I might have to go with Arches, or Yosemite (out of season). And Volcanoes is hard to beat for excitement!
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I am in love with Bryce NP. There’s something magical about its colors, its shapes, its perspectives, it.
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Great question. For quiet I love Isle Royale. For beauty Glacier and Teton. For immense awe, Denali.
After your post, I’ll have to add Bryce to my bucket list.
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Bryce is definitely my favorite so far… but haven’t seen many others outside of Yellowstone, Zion, Arches, Monument Valley and Glacier Nat. Parks. Thanks for sharing, it makes me want to go to all the places soooooon!
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I love all of the Utah Parks…we recently went to Yosemite – only to be enjoyed while backpacking in my opinion. And I loved Glacier National Park…great hikes and always a thrill of potentially running into a Grizzly. Great images!!
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Thus far, we’ve struck out on Grizzly sightings – excepting a glimpse of a great shadowy figure lurking deep in the forest.
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I couldn’t choose “the best” park in Utah, let alone in the entire United States. But Bryce and Zion do come close to the top.
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So many good ones and so many unique ones it really is hard to choose one as “best.”
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