North Campground — Hotel in Bryce Canyon City

My husband and I are on a much anticipated vacation out West, staying at a different National Park Campground every night. Last night, we stayed at North Campground in the beautiful Bryce Canyon NP. The morning was absolutely magical when we woke up, and we were excited for the day ahead of us...until the Camp Host came by on his golf cart and completely ruined our good mood. He was extremely rude to the point that I am writing my first online review for anything. First of all, we made a mistake. We have had to reserve all of the other campsites we’ve stayed at, online, in advance. So arriving here, at a site that does not allow reservations, we did not quite know the protocol. We assumed that you pay when checking out like you do at every hotel, motel, etc. Turns out you are expected to pay up front and register before entering. That is fine, we just didn’t know, and there is no one at the entrance to tell you otherwise, or register your car; just a drop box that we did not see. We set up camp during the daylight and no one said a thing to us all day or night. Then, upon waking, we were just about to make breakfast when the Camp Host snuck up behind me and started yelling at us about where we parked our car. He didn’t even greet us at all. Didn’t say “hello” or “good morning,” he just started angrily yelling about our car being parked on some rocks and sand next to our tent and said that they’re trying to grow grass there and to move it to a different spot of rocks and sand next to the road. Again, that’s fine. There was no sign saying not to park certain places, but we understandably apologized and moved our car. This did not satisfy him, and he remained standing in our campsite “threatening” that the park ranger would be much more furious if he came by and saw our car, as if we were commiting some sort of a crime. He continued to berate us arbitrarily, and his wife then walked over and gave me a slip to fill out to register my car. He yelled “YOU KNOW THIS ISN’T FREE! YOU HAVE TO PAY TO STAY HERE, YOU KNOW! DO YOU KNOW THAT?!” To which I politely replied “yes, I know.” And he said “YOU DO?!” Then he stood there and watched me fill out the form while making several little remarks about our visit as if we were a nuisance to the park. We just had a tent and a car and kept the site clean with food properly stowed away... All in all, the campground was clean and nice, but the attitude that the Camp Host displayed was completely unwarranted and unprofessional, and ruined the whole experience. He spoke to us in the most patronizing manner, as if we were children, and made me want to pack up and get out of there as fast possible. Very unwelcoming and unresponsive to how polite we were in return—both my husband and I in shock over being yelled at by a stranger first thing in the morning, over something that could have and should have been calmly discussed with mutual respect as humans. Even hiking all day at the incredible Bryce Canyon did not get this encounter off of my mind, so I had to leave this note here to make someone aware of the treatment I’m sure other guests have faced as well, by this Host, over simple...

This is obviously the most convenient campground for touring Bryce Canyon national park, and as such it's amazing for hiking, for seeing the park at sunrise and sunset, and just for all around convenience. You can walk to the most beautiful (in our opinion) parts of the park in just a few miles, and not worry about parking. The sites are pretty large and shaded, and come with a fire pit and picnic table. (I believe there are also bathrooms although we did not use them as we have an RV.) The whole campground is clean and gives great views of the night sky in this dark skies park. All in all I'd recommend it.||Now for the drawbacks. First, it is a bit frustrating that so much of this campground closes in mid October and that the remaining sites are first come first serve. When we were here in the first days of November it was packed with people searching for sites, and with Utah cutting down on where people can camp on BLM land, it adds a lot of stress to a trip that could be alleviated by keeping more sites open and allowing people to reserve later in the season, since it appears they could easily fill the spaces. If you do want to camp here in a reservation-less time, I'd make sure to get here before noon. Also, although the sites themselves are large, they are not at all private. We did not see a single one where your fire would not back up to at least 3-4 other campfires. Finally, we found the rangers here unfortunately standoff-ish and they did not come across as friendly. While they never approached us and so I don't believe we were breaking any rules, they drove by our campsite every 20-30 minutes for the few hours we were there and stared at our site like we were doing something bad, did not wave back and would not respond to saying hello. Perhaps it was a bad day for them, but it gave the impression that they were just waiting for us to do something wrong, which is of course not the most relaxing vacation feeling. ||All in all it's still definitely worth staying here to see the beautiful park - just be aware of seasonal limitations in late fall and be prepared to arrive early to get a site - and make sure you read all the rules so you know what to...

Had an amazing time at Bryce Canyon, beautiful hikes, beautiful look out spots, overall just stunning.

The north campground was very nice, we were in section B and got a great spot for 3 tents. The bathrooms were pretty clean and having access to the sink was very nice.

Our biggest issue was that we felt like we were being policed/baby sat the whole time we were there. Even though we obeyed all the rules (which we were told somewhat rudely to look at while we were initially setting up) we got eyed by the “camp host” and security that seemed to come around every 30 minutes to an hour and made us feel more uncomfortable than “protected”. Most of the camp personnel left us alone, but there was one host who we felt was on a power trip and seemed to go out of his way to find us and other campers doing something wrong he could passive aggressively get after you for (he was the one who told us to read the rules at the beginning).

I love being able to visit and camp in our beautiful publicly owned national parks, but I’d rather not feel like I’m being monitored while I’m making s’mores over the fire.

I understand there needs to be people checking up to make sure everyone is being respectful and following the major guidelines, but we felt like it was taken to another level that made us feel somewhat uncomfortable staying at this camp site.

Still had an amazing time at the national park and would recommend visiting, just be aware of the camping situation...