Hiking the Hoodoos

Ever since Bud, Adler and I came to Bryce Canyon National Park for a day trip the summer of 2021 and I saw trails down through the canyon I’ve wanted to hike there.

Today I got the chance. Bud and I arrived at the trailhead at just about 9 AM. I had found a trail that seemed perfect. We would descend the Queen’s Garden Trail at Sunrise Point, which is the easiest descent in the park, then link up with the Navajo Loop and ascend the Wall Street side of that loop, which our neighbors at the RV park said was not to be missed. We would come up at Sunset Point. From the park brochure I thought we would be hiking through the canyon for just under 2 miles. I planned to walk back the mile along the rim to get the truck. If Bud didn’t want to hike that extra mile I could drive back to get him.

The hike started down the spine of a descending ridge.

The views down…

and out were beautiful.

But what I really loved was getting down among the hoodoos.

We even got to walk right through a hoodoo,

more than once!

We were well below the canyon rim and it was beautiful.

I liked the ones with white in them.

We took the short side trail to see the hoodoo that resembles…

a statue of Queen Victoria (hence Queen’s Garden).

From there we headed towards Sunset Point.

We continued a gradual descent until we were on the floor of the canyon with the hoodoos high above.

We neared another huge group of hoodoos. This was beautiful, but I was getting concerned, we were well past a mile and a half and still had a ways to go.

When we finally came to the bottom of the Navajo Loop we had already walked over two miles. Still, I persuaded Bud to choose the Wall Street side even though it was a tenth of a mile longer.

But, oh my, we were walking up through giant hoodoos.

This was what I came for.

I did notice that we were getting close to the edge of the canyon and we were still pretty far down.

I was worried for Bud, I knew this was more than he had expected, but I hoped if we took our time he’d be okay. And I hoped the experience of this would make it worth it.

The first set of steps had been interesting.

And walking through these monsters was awesome.

But when Bud saw this never ending ramp in front of us he was not happy.

He was not even impressed with the view of Inspiration Point far above us.

I think it was the “far above us” part that put him off.

Looking back you could see we’d come a long way,

but we still had a long way to go, all of it up.

The end was finally in sight; I’m not sure Bud took the energy to look up.

What a climb!

But what an experience! We’d come up through that opening in all those hoodoos.

As it turned out, the hike in the canyon was three miles and it was another mile back to the truck.

I walked that, and honestly, after that climb it felt great to be walking on a level sidewalk.

It was fun to look back down and know we’d walked there.

I even climbed up the little hill to Sunrise Point to get a photo of the beginning of our trail.

When I picked up Bud he thanked me for doing the extra walking and said he was glad he’d done it, even if it was a mile longer and a lot harder than he’d agreed to.