Bryce Canyon might be America’s most spectacular drive-through national park. Visitors pull into an overlook, admire a thousand orange hoodoos, snap a photo, and drive to the next viewpoint. It’s fast food for the eyes: beautiful, looks great on your feed, and over in minutes.
But I wanted more than the Happy Meal. So I shouldered my pack at Bryce Point and headed down the Under-the-Rim Trail, leaving the overlooks and crowded dayhikes behind for an overnight adventure. What I found was another Bryce Canyon entirely, where the landscape becomes something you walk through rather than look down upon.
I expected more of the same orange hoodoos that made Bryce famous. Instead, I wandered through pine forests, sandy hills, and open meadows. The towering formations hadn’t disappeared. They were just above me now, casting unfamiliar shadows across the landscape.
Beneath the rim, Bryce felt less like a geological spectacle and more like a wilderness.
Fast Facts
Trail: Under-The-Rim Trail
Trailhead: Start: Bryce Point, End: Rainbow Point
Distance: 23.60 miles (my GPS numbers)
Elevation: 5,167 feet (my GPS numbers)
Type: Point-to-point
Permits: Required for all overnight trips
Descending Beneath the Rim
The first surprise came barely two miles in. The “Hat Shop” is a collection of odd hoodoos resembling people wearing oversized hats, with enormous boulders balanced on skinny pillars. Whoever named it deserves a raise. But don’t forget to turn around: You’ve already dropped almost a thousand feet below Bryce Point, and the view looking back is one most visitors will never see.
That initial descent is deceiving. About four miles in, you’re at the bottom of the first big drop, but the trail is far from finished climbing. The remaining miles are full of what our backpacking group calls “PUDs,” or pointless ups and downs. Stunning, certainly, but brutal on the legs.
Those PUDs led to an ongoing debate amongst our group: Which is harder, the Grand Canyon’s Rim-to-Rim or Bryce’s Under-the-Rim Trail? I’ve now hiked both, and the similarities are surprising. Both cover more than 20 miles, demand thousands of feet of elevation change, and reward you with spectacular Southwest scenery.
Opinions are split, but I give the difficulty crown to Bryce. Those relentless ups and downs really add up, and so do the endless changing views.
The Grand Canyon might be the undisputed king of desert backpacking, but I think Bryce deserves a place in the same conversation. With flooding, fire damage, and construction disrupting the Grand Canyon’s famous Rim-to-Rim route, this is another adventure worth considering just a few hours north. It’s not the Grand Canyon, and that’s exactly the point.
Histories of Bryce
My favorite stretch came between the Swamp Canyon and Whiteman Bench connecting trails. For roughly two miles, the trail passes through an old burn scar where the forest is slowly reclaiming the landscape. Normally, walking through burned trees feels somber. Here, fresh green growth fills the gaps, and the thinned forest opens up enormous views that the living trees once concealed.
Swamp Canyon Butte and Mud Canyon Butte tower above you, with Bryce’s massive walls rising on your opposite side. Buttes look better from below, if you ask me. This is where you start feeling small—where the park’s big crowds become a distant memory, and the wilderness really creeps in. I thought about the Southern Paiute story of how the hoodoos were formed. “Legend People,” whom the trickster god Coyote turned to stone, were forever frozen in time. Looking up at those towering formations, it wasn’t hard to imagine those figures watching us pass.
Bryce Canyon itself was named for Ebenezer Bryce, an early settler who reportedly described the rugged landscape as “a helluva place to lose a cow.” After navigating its maze of drainages and forests, I understood his frustration—though getting lost in the scenery was precisely why I’d come.
Permits, Campsites, and Water
Fortunately, getting an overnight permit is easier than finding Ebenezer’s missing livestock. When we arrived at the packed visitor center, the ranger perked up at the mention of backpacking, apparently excited to discuss something other than the Navajo Loop. They told us we were the only backpackers heading out that week. You can reserve permits on Recreation.gov up to three months ahead, with an in-person ranger check-in required before departure. Bear-resistant canisters are also required, and the park lends them out for free (yes, there are black bears in Bryce). The whole process is very easy, since the trail is still overshadowed by other “bucket list” hiking and backpacking routes in the area.
Campsites are designated, and spacing makes planning important. Swamp Canyon and Natural Bridge are good options for breaking up the route, though neither guarantees equal mileage. You could make this a two-night trip and camp at both, but we were only permitted for a single night. At Swamp Canyon, we found flat tent pads and a designated cooking area.
Water is the bigger headache. Unlike canyon hikes that follow a river, Under-the-Rim crosses long, usually dry washes that finger down from the tall wall. On our trip, the reliable stops were Yellow Creek early on and Iron Spring much closer to the finish. That meant carrying extra water across all those PUDs. Seasonal sources vary, so check with a ranger, treat everything you collect, and consider caching water at permitted trail junctions. Both Yellow Creek and Iron Spring dry up entirely by mid-summer.
When to Hike and How to Get Back
Timing is equally tricky. I hiked on April 27, hoping for green forests without the summer heat. I wish I’d waited another week for spring to wake up. Late spring and early fall offer appealing windows, but snow, freezing nights, and summer thunderstorms all deserve consideration.
Bring layers, sun protection, and plenty of water. It was hot during the day and freezing at night. It made for the kinds of mornings where I really didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag.
Finally, remember that Under-the-Rim is a point-to-point hike from Bryce Point to Rainbow Point. The regular park shuttle doesn’t serve Rainbow Point, so arrange transportation ahead of time. We parked a car at both trailheads to make it easy. NPS offers other options for shuttling from Rainbow Point on its website.
And here’s the funny part: Getting back means driving the same scenic road I’d spent the whole trip trying to escape. There I was, dusty and tired, sitting in national park traffic with everyone else, admiring those same orange hoodoos from the comfort of a car. Only now, I’d also seen them from below.
On the trail, I was a backpacker. On the drive back, I was a tourist. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with being both. Bryce is a damn beautiful place, no matter which angle you look at it from.
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