Bryce Canyon National Park in southwestern Utah offers overnight visitors two maintained year-round campgrounds near the visitor's center and 12 designated backcountry campgrounds scattered throughout the remote 56-square-mile park. The area attracts relatively few visitors compared to the region's more popular Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National.
Significance
Bryce Canyon National Park centers around a natural amphitheater created not by rivers but by erosion from wind and freezing, according to the park website. Its most distinctive features--tall, skinny, eroded pinnacles called hoodoos--populate the landscape and appear to stand guard over the park. The U.S. government designated the area around the canyon as a national monument in 1923 and made it a national park five years later, according to the park website.
Campgrounds
The North and Sunset campgrounds both offer easy access to the park's amphitheater and Bryce Canyon Lodge, the visitor's center. The park provides flush toilet facilities and potable water at both campsites. The nearby general store offers showers and a coin-operated laundry only in the summer.
The North Campground includes 13 recreational vehicle sites that accept advance reservations. Another 86 recreational vehicle and tent sites in the campground operate on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the park website. The South Campground includes 20 tent sites and one group site available for advance reservations and another 80 vehicle and tent sites offered on a daily basis.
Features
Neither campground provides hook-ups for recreational vehicles, but a pay dump station operates during the summer at the North Campground. The park provides picnic tables and fire grates at both campgrounds. Deep snow or ice may close some of the campsites during the winter.
The North Campground lies closest to the general store while the Sunset Campground provides the easiest access to hiking trails, according to the park website. Both campgrounds loop through Ponderosa pine forests, providing both shaded and sunny campsites, according to the Bryce Canyon Camping Guide website.
Backcountry
Bryce Canyon National Park limits backcountry camping to eight sites along the rugged 23-mile Under the Rim Trail and four sites on the 9-mile Riggs Spring Loop Trail. Permits for overnight backcountry trips must be purchased from the visitor's center. The park allows in-person reservations as much as 48 hours in advance.
The park limits backcountry camping to no more than seven consecutive nights. Ten of the backcountry sites limit visitors to no more than six people at a time.
Fees
The park service fees for the North and Sunset campgrounds are $15 per site per night, as of the summer of 2010. Backcountry permits in 2010 varied depending on the size of the group, ranging from $5 for one to two people to $15 for groups of up to 15 people.
Considerations
First-come, first-service sites usually fill up by early afternoon in the summer, according to the Bryce Canyon National Park website.
Backcountry campers should purify water taken from creeks and springs by boiling it for at least 10 minutes, filtering the water or using iodine treatments, according to the Bryce Canyon Camping Guide website.
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