Bryce Canyon National Park

2 days ago
3 min read

The Amphitheater - we got up close and personal with a lot of it.

[This post is part of the Utah Ultimate National Parkness series - see the main post for additional background.]

You can see 80-90% of the park in the above single photo - as I mentioned in the main post, it is the smallest of the Utah National Parks and has the highest elevation. And, it’s not really a canyon - the park is actually the eastern edge of a really high, enormous plateau (the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau). When you hike there, you are always hiking DOWN the side of the plateau, and then of course you have to go back up, and up, and up.

Which brings me to my favorite hike in the park, also known as the hardest hike in the park (we didn’t know that before we started it!). It’s the Queen’s Garden/Navaho Loop and we were super excited that the Wall Street side of the Navaho Loop had just opened up a couple days before we got there (it’s always closed for winter because of the higher potential for flooding or falling rocks due to weather - yes, winter ends there around early May). The Wall Street side is a steep descent into a narrow slot canyon with amazing views:

When you get to the bottom, the trail all of a sudden opens up and you are magically taking a walk in the woods, though never far from hoodoos:

Then, you wander through Queen’s Garden seeing some interesting formations before starting the very steep ascent back to the top of the plateau.

I will say, this hike up was really hard for me, especially since it was at 8000 ft. There were a lot of people on the path, going in both directions - luckily, there were also several spots to stop, take a breather and admire the view. I would say it was a very well designed trail. There were a handful of groups that we played leapfrog with on the way up - it was fun and there was a lot of group encouragement. Also, unsurprisingly, we also saw some people who were bonkers on the path - the worst was a young family with a child under 7 years old who was careening down the path on his razor scooter while dad was video’ing him. Right on the edge of the path with a sheer dropoff.

After that, we celebrated with a delightful grab and go lunch from the little market in the park and ate at a picnic table with a glorious view. Once rejuvenated, we decided to take the scenic drive to the end of the road in the park - with many overlooks along the way. It’s so interesting, every time we went a little further down the road it looked different enough to warrant more photos. Since all the views of the park are on the “left” side as you drive to the end, the best strategy is to drive all the way to Rainbow Point and then enjoy as many stops/overlooks as you like on the way back. More details in captions: