Rim Trail @ Bryce Canyon National Park

Name: Rim Trail
Location: Bryce Canyon National Park
Distance: 1 mile round trip from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point
Level: Easy
Dogs allowed? Yes, but only on the paved area
Note: Inspiration Point is also welcome to dogs too, but can only be accessed from the Rim Trail through the shared-use path. That's the paved and painted trail that's shared by bicyclists and pedestrians. You can also drive to Inspiration Point.
Directions: About a mile after the Visitor's Center, make a left towards the Bryce Canyon Lodge. There are a few parking lots you can park at, but how close you'll be depends on how busy it is.

History: Bryce Canyon National Park is home to the largest collection of hoodoos (irregularly-eroded rock spires) in the world. How lucky are we as Utahns to have this monumental landscape in our own backyard? Before this area was full of hoodoos, it was full of water between 40 and 55 million years ago. 

The hoodoos were formed from erosion out of the cliffs where rows of narrow walls/fins form. Frost-wedging enlarges cracks in these fins, creating holes or windows. As the windows grow, their tops eventually collapse, leaving a column. Rain further dissolves and sculpts these limestone pillars into bulbous spires called hoodoos.

The delicate climatic balance between snow and rain ensures that new hoodoos will emerge while others become reduced to lumps of clay.

Review: There are more than 65 miles of hiking trails in Bryce Canyon National Park. But only one mile of those trails are welcome to dogs. For the purpose of this blog post, we'll only be talking about that one, which is the Rim Trail from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point.

It's great that Bryce Canyon even offers a hiking trail for dogs, since many national parks don't. The Rim Trail is 11 miles round trip in totality, going to and from Fairyland Point on the north end of the park to Bryce Point on the south side. But only the three middle points: Inspiration, Sunset, and Sunrise are open to our four-legged furry family members.

The great thing about this hike is it gives you great panoramic views of the Bryce Amphitheater. So even though our family was limited to just one trail in the entire park, we were still able to get some stunning views of the hoodoos. As you walk from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point or vice versa, you'll notice the view of the landscape shift, which is super rad.

The entire dog-friendly pathway is paved so it's very hard to miss where your pup can and cannot be. We ran into a bunch of other furry families here. The pups enjoyed getting their sniffs and smells on.

It's a bummer that we couldn't go down into the amphitheater and hike the trails that take you through the hoodoos since dogs are not allowed down there. There's definitely a lot of limitations if you have your fur baby with you. But since our trip down to Bryce Canyon was short and quick, it worked out great for us!

Final notes: Bryce Canyon can get busy and full quickly on the weekends and during the holidays. We went during Memorial Day Weekend, but we arrived early in the day. We noticed on our way out though that visitors were being turned away. It was a little difficult to find parking, but they have multiple lots so you have options. Remember that Southern Utah gets really hot in the summer time, so consider keeping your pup at home or somewhere safe if temperatures will be high. Consider going to Kodachrome Basin State Park nearby if you have another day you'd like to spend in the area and want to bring your dog along.