Red Canyon, Utah - Hoodoos, Hiking Trails, and Arches

Red Canyon in southern Utah is a must visit on your way to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Red Canyon is located on Utah Highway 12, the scenic byway, which is about 16 miles from Bryce Canyon City.

This canyon is free to visit and has its own visitors center and great hiking trails with hoodoos.

As you pull up to Red Canyon, there is a big parking lot on the south side and a sign that says Dixie National Forest.

As you start to drive into the canyon you will see the Red Canyon sign.

This is the Google Earth view of the parking lot area at the beginning of Red Canyon. You can also see that there is a paved bike trail that you can take from this parking lot too. This trail goes all the way to Bryce Canyon National Park.

This is an aerial view of the parking lot area.

As you enter Red Canyon, there are multiple pull offs to park your car and explore the trails.

This is what the first pull off area looked like:

Then we drove to the next pull off, which was closer to the visitors center and parked. This is what it looked like:

You can see the Visitor's Center from this view. There is a lot of parking and it also has trails you can hike.

We drove down farther into Red Canyon until we reached the two arches that you can drive through. This is what it looked like:

You can see from these Google Earth Maps that Red Canyon is only about a 16 mile drive from Bryce Canyon City.

Red Canyon is definitely worth stopping and exploring on your next trip.

We are definitely going to spend more time here on our next trip. There are so many trails to explore and we really want to ride our bikes on the bike trail.

Overall, we would highly recommend visiting and exploring Red Canyon, Utah.

Red Canyon, Utah Map:

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

One of the best things about Red Canyon, Utah is that it is free to visit!

Price: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• A full tank of gas because there are no gas stations in Red Canyon
• Bring a hat to keep the sun off of your face.
• Wear shoes with good grip or hiking shoes.