Tips for Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon

[rswenor]

Thank you for the tips on the canyons. My wife and I are planning a trip in late September, early October this year and we will use your advice. We have about 4 days to do these two and would like to camp in one of them and travel to the other. We like to do day hikes of 1 to 4 hours. Which park and campground would you recommend that we stay in? We have a pop up camper.
Thanks,
Dick

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forum !

Personally I would split your nights between the parks, perhaps spending 2.5 days at Zion and 1.5 at Bryce. The drive from one park to another and back again will be in the region of 6 hours, which to have quality time at both parks would mean travelling this route twice. Watchman campground at Zion is in a good location and you can catch the free shuttle bus into the canyon or town of Springdale, with just a short walk. Bryce has the "Sunset" and "North" campgrounds which you can check out on the respective nps sites. At the top of Bryce canyon, near to the entrance is Ruby's Inn, which has a campground, shops and restaurant. There is construction work going on along the Mt Carmel highway of which you can find details of in this thread.

[rswenor]

Hi Dave,
Thank you for the info. We are taking your advice and staying in each park. Two other questions: 1) We are staying at Mathers Campground at the Grand Canyon. Is there a preferred loop to be on? and 2) We are traveling from northern Michigan. Is it worth it to take our bikes? We have comfort bikes, not mountain bikes.
Thanks,
Dick

[Southwest Dave]

Mather campground is set in woodland, and from memory I can't think of a particular loop that was any different to the others, but we were in a 30ft RV and was restricted to a smaller number of sites that we could fit into. It is only a short walk to the village area and rim.

I am not sure about the bikes, but the one thing I can say is that the parks have free shuttle bus services that run frequently to the main trailheads etc. Look on the nps.gov Website where you can find info on all the parks and campground info.