Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

[ajgraz]

Wife's looking to road trip it with the kids to the Bryce Canyon area for summer vacation. Found open spots at a campground called Singletree in Torrey, UT.

Lots of Nat'l Forests there it seems, what are the must do's / must see's around there?

Fishing opportunities?

Thanks.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

Well lets start with the important stuff,,, fishing

Tropic Reservoir, never been there, neighbor did though and caught some trout.
Panguich Reservoir is up the hill, lots of opportunity, boat rentals, etc, trout
Seiver river if the current isn't ripping, trout
Navajo Lake, trout, kind of out of your way
Duck Creek, tiny lake (pond), shade trees in some areas, out of the way
Lots of lakes up in that area, but have to drive farther

Be sure to check the regulations as some of those lakes have slot limits. About all they have in those lakes is trout, rainbow, cutthroat, brown, splake, etc.. When I go to those area's with the kids I always mash down the hook barbs since we do catch and release on trout. The stockers taste like crap (dogfood...) so we don't eat them. If you can get a native fish they are tasty, gut-scale, couple pats of butter in the gut cavity, wrap in foil, throw in fire.

I would check out Cedar Breaks while you are up there. Zion Canyon is pretty cool, though, from what I heard, you can't drive up in there anymore, have to take their shuttle. Tropic (below Bryce Canyon) has a trail head going up into Bryce Canyon, you hike up through Bryce Canyon, pretty cool, highly recommend.

How long are you going to be up there? If I were doing a 3-4 days up there I'd go up through Zion, on to Bryce, then back through Cedar Breaks. If you want to avoid congested traffic, slow winding mountain roads, go up to route 20 and take that east from I-15, then drop back down to Panguitch/Bryce.

Out of the area, but on your way up to UT is Valley of Fire in NV, lots of cool things to see, visitors center. I took the kids up there 3 times this spring, camped with family 1 trip. It's going to be hotter than 'ell this time of the year, but if heading through in the early morning (crack of dawn) it would be nice. I wouldn't want to be exploring around there much past 10am this time of year though... Here's a big horn that decided to visit our camp

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

Thanks for the info, we probably will camp 3 or 4 days. Wife is now also looking at a campground called Mackinaw (on Fish Lake?) because it apparently has showers.

Plan is to stop into Vegas for a night the way out, then on to the campground; on the way back we're not sure yet, maybe a day or two in the Flagstaff, AZ area, then an overnight at my Bro-in-Law's in Santa Monica before coming back to San Diego.

Is Vegas to the Bryce Canyon area (then set up camp) in a single day doable, or should we break up that drive?

How do I tell a native from a stocked trout? UT have two or three day permits? Age requirement?
Boat rental sounds good, got a link or the name of an outfit?

How tough is the Tropic trail? How long? How hot will it be there? Nephew has a minor heart condition.

You on BD too? I was just about to go post over there.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

My son and I do a yearly (cept this year) trip to Fish Lake at ice off. We stay at Bowery Haven as none of the campgrounds are open then, but the camp grounds do look nice, lots of trees, good facilities,,, we have walked around them before. Shore fishing there is tough as there is a weed choked shallow shelf that goes out 40-50' all around the lake, then it drops down into 50-100', people do it though, and catch fish. Bowery Haven has boat rentals, cabins, hotel, store, good restaurant. It's not as fancy smancy as Fish Lake Lodge, but I like it. Fish Lake is at 8800', so it should be nice and cool up there. I go up there for the lake trout, but they are hard to catch, deep this time of year. Last trip we got sick of catching rainbows, many double hook-ups to boot. Tiger muskies got in there, story 1 is they swap up from Johnson Reservoir, story 2 is the DFG mistakenly dumped then in there.

Vegas to any place up there is doable in 1 day, Vegas to FL is 5 hours (6+ hours towing). We go up through Richfield or Seiver. Jumping off at route 20 is shorter, but it takes longer. I've done a lot of 3-day trips up there, which turns out to be 1 day of travel and 2 days camping/fishing.

The stockers are supposed to have a clipped fin, so you can tell them apart from natives. I'm not sure they all do, but I've seen it a lot on stockers. Stocker trout meat looks a dull muted pink/white color while the natives have a bright pink/orange color, though you can't see that until they are dead. You will probably catch 8-9 stockers to 1 native. Eat both and you will notice a big difference in flavor. If you are going to do the foil fire trout cooking thing, bring along some corn on the cob and cook them up the same way, good combo.

I've only done the Tropic/Bryce trail one time, during the winter, so you will have to check Tropic's weather forecast to see if it's going to be too hot for people in your party. You are probably going up 2000' (or more) so it is a strenuous trial on the way up, going down is easy. There are some areas where it drops off pretty bad, so if you have really young kids that could fall or anyone that has a fear of heights, I wouldn't do it. It's nothing like hiking the Grand Canyon, but definitely not a walk in the park... When I hiked it (when I was in shape) we ripped up the trail in 2 hours as I remember. If I were to do it with my family now, probably 3 hours,,, then 2+ hours back down.

I've been on BD for 5-6 years, but don't drop in much anymore. Too poor to go tuna fishing now

 

[tswiczko]

Re: Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

You gotta check out the Hoodoos when you are there

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Bryce Canyon UT area for summer vacation, anyone know or live in that area?

I thought of something by looking at ts's pic. You don't have to hike all the way up to the top of Bryce to checkout all the formations. The trail up to the foot of the formations is pretty easy, then you could just monkey around down at the bottom, maybe hike a bit up in there.