If you have extra time after spending a day or two at Bryce Canyon National Park, there are several worthwhile side trips you might consider within a one-to-three-hour drive of the park.
Area map of possible side trips around Bryce Canyon National Park / NPS
Looking at the map above, you can see it would be easy to spend a week just exploring these side trips!
A view of the landscape at one of the overlooks in Cedar Breaks National Monument / NPS file
Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah is about 62 miles (99.8 km) west-southwest of Bryce Canyon. Will you be looking at more of the same scenery as what you have already viewed? Well, Cedar Breaks is similar because it offers similar geology, but it’s smaller, more intimate, and definitely less crowded than Bryce Canyon during peak season. Cedar Breaks is sort of like Bryce Canyon’s kid sister. You’ll see cliffs and pinnacles saturated with color, at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,048 m), which is about 1,000 feet (304.8 m) higher than Bryce Canyon’s elevation. This extra elevation means it will be cooler during summer. And, did I mention there are less crowds at this national monument? While you are there, stop off at this national monument’s new visitor center.
Taking in the vast landscape at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument / BLM-Warren
If you are looking for someplace a little more remote and even less-visited than Cedar Breaks, turn your vehicle southeast of Bryce Canyon’s entrance toward Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, where you can explore nearly 1.87 million acres of this landscape through which traveled the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont peoples. Stop off at the Cannonville Visitor Center, 15 miles (24 km) from Bryce Canyon City, and get recommendations on what to visit within that area of this national monument.
Colorful rock formations in Kodachrome Basin State Park / Jeff Hollett
If Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument sounds too ambitious, drive a little further south of Cannonville to Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah, so named in 1949 after the popular color film by the National Geographic Society after viewing the area’s saturated rock colors. There’s hiking, guided horseback riding, mountain biking, an 18-hole disc golf course, and a brand-new 3D archery course where you can rent a bow and test your skill.
Bryce Canyon is also within a two-and-a-half-hour’s drive of two other national parks: Capitol Reef and Zion (both east and west entrances). If you are feeling up to a slightly longer drive through amazing scenery, then go tackle the three-hour drive to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. You might want to spend a couple of days at the North Rim rather than drive the three hours back that same day.
