Navajo/Queens Garden Loop - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah - Hiking Trail

Navajo/Queens Garden Loop is a feature at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and is approximately 156 miles from Moab and 217 miles from Salt Lake City. The park is located about four and a half miles south of the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 63. It is open to visitors 24 hours a day throughout the year.

Bryce Canyon National Park has many canyons forming a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters on the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah. Through many years of erosion, colorful Claron limestone has been carved into thousands of spires, fins, arches and mazes called "hoodoos''. Many visitors come here for sight-seeing, hiking, camping, backpacking, photography, horseback riding, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, bird watching and many other activities.

The Queens Garden Trail is approximately a three kilometer round trip and probably the easiest trail into the canyon from the rim. It begins at Sunrise Point and descends about 98 meters enabling visitors to see many hoodoos that look a little like garden features. It is said that if visitors use their imagination it is possible to see Queen Victoria at the end of a short spur trail overseeing the garden before her.

The Navajo Trail is a two kilometer fairly moderate round trip and begins at Sunset Point heading down into the main amphitheater. The Wall Street side of the trail experienced a rock slide in 2006, and had to be closed for a couple of years. The entire Navajo Loop is now open and takes visitors to Two Bridges, Thors Hammer and Wall Street but due to the popularity of the trail, visitors are advised to exercise extreme caution.

These two trails can be combined to create a second loop starting at Sunset Point and then taking a hike north along the canyon rim to Sunrise Point. From this point visitors can follow the Queens Garden Trail down to the bottom of the canyon before heading to the Wall Street half of the Navajo Loop and back to Sunset Point. Another way to do this is by walking down Wall Street and up Queens Garden but this is not very safe and therefore not recommended for visitors.

Visitors will require a permit for overnight travel in Bryce Canyon's Backcountry, which can be obtained at the Visitor Center located approximately one and a half miles inside the park. Here visitors can view a ten-minute slide program and various exhibits, whilst there are also restrooms and park information at the center, which opens throughout the year apart from Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Opening hours are 8am to 8pm May to September, 8am to 6pm October and April and 8am to 4.30pm November to March.

There are two campgrounds at the park with 218 sites available on a first-come, first-served basis and a limit of 6 people, 3 tents, and 2 vehicles per site. Visitors preferring not to camp can try the Bryce Canyon Lodge, which is located in the park and has 114 rooms including suites, motel rooms and cabins.