Hotels

Although you don't have as many choices for lodging, dining, and camping inside Bryce Canyon National Park as you do at larger parks, such as Yosemite and Grand Canyon, to our thinking, what is offered at Bryce Canyon is a perfect complement to your national park experience. In addition to being well managed, the Bryce Canyon Lodge and park campgrounds offer incredible views and a rustic, rugged, mountain atmosphere that can't be beat.

However, let's not put down the facilities available in the nearby gateway communities. Here you'll find a variety of lodging and dining choices, often at lower prices than inside the park, as well as campgrounds with RV hookups and all the other amenities that are lacking in the national park campgrounds.

Room tax adds about 10% to your lodging bill. Pets are not accepted unless otherwise noted.

For additional information on area lodging, contact Bryce Canyon Country (the Garfield County Office of Tourism), 55 S. Main St. (P.O. Box 200), Panguitch, UT 84759 (tel. 800/444-6689 or 435/676-1160; fax 435/676-8239; www.brycecanyoncountry.com).

However, we offer one note of caution. Communities and facilities as much as an hour away from the park boast that they are the best places to stay when visiting Bryce Canyon. We disagree.

Although you can often find attractive facilities at very reasonable rates by driving far from the park, we don't think it's worth it. For one thing, you spent too much time, energy, and money to get here to waste time commuting.

Perhaps more important, though, is that Bryce Canyon is especially delightful early and late in the day, and the closer you are to the park the more likely you are to be on the rim for the spectacular sunrise and sunset colors.

All of the properties discussed here are in or close to the park.