Near the entrance to Bryce Canyon is Ruby’s Inn. This is a Best Western Motel that caters to most of the tourist coming to visit the park. It is a Motel, restaurant, gift shop, atv rental, camp ground, RV park, and has a Horse motel. If I am with friends who want a bed and hot shower, We can check them into a room at Ruby’s Inn and check the horses into the horse motel across the street. Even if we camp out, We often swing into Ruby’s Inn for their buffet for breakfast or dinner.
If you want to camp out, there are numerous places to camp. Coyote Hollow has 4 equestrian camp sites. These sites are all located in a nice stand of Ponderosa pines, They offer nice shade and basically picnic tables and hitching rails with a flat pad to park your rig on. You will pay the Forest Service fee for camping. I don’t remember if their is water or and outhouse located there. The Upper trail head for the Thunder Mountain trails is very close to the camp sites. Coyote Hollow is up on the plateau, So you can ride thru the sage brush and Ponderosa pines and just wander, or head down the Thunder Mountain trail that will take you down into Red Canyon. Mountain Bikers often ride downhill on this trail and have somebody pick them up about 7 miles down in Red Canyon.
As you head down hiway 12 in Red Canyon, there are several side roads that head out into the Forest. I like to camp on the Corral Hollow road. This area also has lots of large Ponderosa Pines to park underneath, There are occasional stock ponds that hold water in the spring, they catch the snow melt and any rain run off, I’ve never checked them in the summer to see how long the water last. But the cattle on the grazing permit use them for water.
Near the mouth of Red Canyon, you can turn north on a gravel road and drive in a mile or two and camp near the mouth of Losee Canyon. Here you will be camping in the Pinon Pines. Losee and Casto Creeks both have water in the spring and your horses can drink that. There is a wonderful trail that goes up Losee Canyon, crosses over and comes down Casto Canyon. You can do this as one long loop ride or do a separate day ride up each canyon.
Southern Utah is known for it’s WindRock faces. If you get caught in the Bryce area when the wind blows, you can have a couple days of strong winds blowing sand. We have found that if we drive an hour over to the Grand Staircase Escalante national monument near Cannondale, We can get out of the wind and enjoy a ride in the slot canyons that are found in that area.
Inside Bryce Canyon itself, there is only one real trail to ride your horses on. You can easily do this ride in 4-6 hours. You will need a Coggins for your horse. Check with the rangers to see when the guide service is heading out with its paying riders. The guide wranglers and their customer, ALWAYS get priority on the trail. If you encounter them on the trail, You need to back up and get off the trail to make room for them to pass.
Horse motel at Ruby’s Inn
If you are in the area, The ride in Bryce is a must do.
This is the area on top of the plateau up around Coyote Hollow. Easy going trails thru sage brush and spruce or pines
This is Casto Canyon, Lots of red Rock and some water in the stream
Campsite near the mouth of Losee Canyon.
This is in Casto Canyon
This is on the Thunder Mountain Trail that starts in Lower Red Canyon and ends up in Coyote Hollow.
This is entering into Sheep Creek over in the Grand Staircase Escalante.
A little farther down Sheep Creek
When you get to the intersection of Willis Creek, Take a minute and get off your horses explore along the cliff faces. There are lots of indian pictographs painted on the rocks in this area. It’s a good place to eat your lunch. When you are back in the saddle, head up Willis Canyon. You will notice the little stream here is a reddish color. This stream originates in Bryce Canyon and carries the red color of the soil in the canyon.
The canyon walls will close in and you will enter some narrow slots.
After passing thru several of these narrow section, You will come to a section that appears un passable, here you will scramble up a very steep hill side
When you come out on the ridge, Just wander through the Pinon Pines and sagebrush until you come to the gravel road. It will be a couple mile ride back along the road to get back to your starting point.
