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Twice, in mid-December, we have undertaken the long drive from Las Vegas to Bryce Canyon National Park via Zion Canyon National Park. Bryce is almost a 5 hour drive from Vegas, assuming you spend very little time in Zion, that is, if you can resist Zion's charms. But, those 5 hours are definitely worth the effort, especially if the long drive from Zion to Bryce is done in the dead of Winter. |
The first drive was done in 2001, when we hardly spent any time at all within Zion, using the Mount Carmel highway to simply cross over to the other side. The plan was to drive to Bryce and back to Vegas within the same day. Hectic, but entirely possible. All trails in Bryce are closed during winter, so you can pretty much just drive along the rim and peer down. Even if they aren't closed, the biting cold will leave you no other choice. Within seconds of removing my gloves to take a picture, my fingers would painfully freeze and crack, and I couldn't even feel the camera body. But the sights! It was all well worth the pain.
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For the second drive in 2002, we took it a bit more easily, booking a room in Kanab, Utah to split two days between Zion and Bryce. That was an extremely wise decision, as in December of 2002, the worst Pacific storm in recent memory followed us all the way from Kings Canyon National Park to Zion and onwards to Bryce, dumping truckloads of rain and snow wherever we went. We hit the worst when we were about to start from Zion, via the Mount Carmel highway towards Kanab. All throughout the drive, we inched slowly in thick falling snow and near-zero visibility.
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