Seeking recommendations

[HustonFamily]

Can anyone recommend good places to stay in the area of Bryce Canyon/Zion/North rim? perhaps a single location which would be a 'base of operations'? I'm coming all the way from Nebraska... I-70... presumably down I-15... unless someone recommends a different route?

Thanks in advance for any experience/insight!

[Roger C H]

Can anyone recommend good places to stay in the area of Bryce Canyon/Zion/North rim? perhaps a single location which would be a 'base of operations'? I'm coming all the way from Nebraska... I-70... presumably down I-15... unless someone recommends a different route?

Thanks in advance for any experience/insight!

We visited southern Utah, northern Arizona in 1996. We camped in a tent.

At Bryce, we stayed at Ruby's Inn Campground in the middle of July. At night the temperature got down to 25°. Bryce is at 7000' altitude.

Here is a list of the campgrounds available:

http://www.utah.com/database/campgrounds/?id=65

At North Rim, (8000' altitude) we stayed in a cabin. We took the hike to Bright Angel Point and ate in the lodge. You would't think that you could spend a whole day just looking at the canyon from the lodge veranda, but we did and it was fabulous! You observe the shifting light patterns in the canyon as the sun progresses across the sky. You can see the south rim 16 miles away across the canyon. Awesome.

If you want to do some exploring, read the caution at the right of this page:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/grca/grandcanyo...h-rim/index.htm

The third park we stayed at is Zion where it was HOT. Our son got mild heat stroke hiking up a mountain side. Drink plenty of water, more than you think you need.

http://www.nps.gov/zion

I have some great pictures of this trip, but unfortunately they are all in 35mm.

I can't really recommend a central location for seeing all these parks because the distances are long here and the roads can be really curvy so that you can't go 60mph. all the time, nor would you want to. The things you will see between the parks are very interesting also.

You are coming from the east, if you have the time, you may want to visit Arches National Park:

http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/arches.htm

Bring your binoculars, cameras and sunscreen. You won't be disappointed. This is wonderful country!

A WORD OF CAUTION:

You are from Nebraska, if you are not familiar with mountain areas listen to this: Altitude makes a big difference in what you can do physically. Several of us push-started a VW Beetle in Bozeman, MT (5000') and it took me 2 hours to catch my breath and I was 36 at the time.

[Adrian W]

We prefer Nat'l Park or Forest or State Park Campgounds to Commerical/Private. When we visited the North Side of Grand Canyon, we stayed in a Forest area outside of the Park (no room in the Park). We went from there to Bryce stayed at one of the Park Campgrounds. From Bryce, we went to Fish Lake, then to Panaguitch Lake at Forest Service campground we used it to go see Zion. Zion has nice campgrounds, but much warmer than Panaguitch Lake area when we were there.

I'd camp near the parks if I could.