My husband and I are visiting Bryce & Zion in late June with lodging reserved in the both parks. But, we cannot decide if we should stay in a cabin or a lodge room. Any hints? We currently have lodge rooms booked but the cabins have become available on our dates.

We visited Zion last July and stayed in a cabin for four nights. We really enjoyed the experience and would do it again.

I vote for the cabins which we stayed in both in Bryce & Zion. Bryce cabin in a wooded area w/ gas fireplace & small porch and walked to the lodge for meals and overlooks for sunrise. Zion cabin similar w/o fireplace but enjoyed being a little separate from the lodge. Enjoy!

We just got back from a "Grand Tour" of the four corners (nearly 3 weeks and every single day was wonderful). We stayed in Mt Carmel, to the East of Zion for three nights and enjoyed both parks from there. However I think Zion would be a terrific park at which to stay in a cabin. I was not as impressed with the in-the-park lodging at Bryce. We had stayed at El Tovar in the Grand Canyon and lucked out with a 3rd floor, canyon side room -- you can't make a reservation guaranteeing anything about your room, unless you are getting one of the suites.

Anyway, you will love both Bryce and Zion. Zion was our favorite park, although it is hard to explain why. It provides such a diversity of geology and natural splendor. Bryce is one-of-a-kind. We were limited at Bryce from some of the trails because they were still snow covered! But do take the Navaho Loop trail down into the canyon. You don't have to come up the steep second part of the Loop as you can come back up through Queens' Gardens, but the hikes down into the canyon give you such an intimate experience. The place is simply ethereal!

Staying IN the parks gives you the advantage of seeing things early in the mornings, and - of course - those stunning night time skies with next to nothing light pollution. Take advantage of any free Ranger tours you can. They will add so much to your experience.

We stayed in a cabin in Zion and loved it. It was small and utilitarian but very cute. I loved having a fire place and a front porch.

I had a room in Bryce & Zion and an individual cabin in GC.

I spent so little time in the room that the location is more important than the room.

I didn't have a TV in Bryce & Zion and don't know if any have. That would have been nice for the 5 minutes before I fell asleep.

In Bryce my room was between Sunrise & Sunset Pts and about 2 minutes from the rim.

In GC I was about 30 yards from ther rim. That was more important to me.

Bookmarking

Unless it's changed in the past 5 years, at Bryce there are only rooms in cabins except for a total of three rooms IN the lodge building itself. We had one of those and while it was huge compared to the cabins rooms, it was rather sparsely furnished in what appeared to be "Florida" cheap condo style furnishings. Very odd, and not very "Bryce" in style.

I've only stayed in cabins at Zion, so can't tell you about the lodge rooms there (except that there are a lot of them as opposed to Bryce).

My suggestion is to go for a cabin in either.

I don't think you can possibly go wrong if you are staying in the parks. We stayed at a cabin at Bryce - right near the rim. The cabin had lots of charm with a fireplace and porch. It was very comfortable for the 4 of us (2 adults, 2 teens). Note that the other half of the cabin is rented to someone else, so there is a wall in between you. (This wasn't an issue, but I thought I'd mention it). The cabins are actually quite large, so they are duplexes. In the North Rim, we stayed in a smaller (but sweet) free standing cabin.

At Zion, we stayed in a "green suite" and I can't say enough wonderful things about that either. It had all these fantastic green features (many of which we have implemented at home!), also a porch and a view. There is a sign in the room about what is green (such as the lighting, bamboo flooring, bamboo sheets - which feel like cotton, green products etc). Very inspirational! And it was extremely comfortable.

Enjoy your trip!