Peekaboo, Hoodoo – Bryce Canyon National Park

Snow, desert, forest, amphitheater. Four different descriptions that all accurately describe our first trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. A park that not only leaves you speechless, but in bewilderment, as well.

If you have been, you understand the difficulty in trying to describe the complexity of the park.

If you haven’t been, do yourself a favor, and take this moment to write it down on your bucket list (really).

What makes Bryce Canyon so unique? Hoodoos and elevation.

The park sits at over 8,000 feet elevation. High elevation causes high winds and intense storms, which result in hoodoos. If you don’t know what a “hoodoo” is, don’t worry, we didn’t either.

Bryce Canyon was the second National Park stop during our trip out west. After being awestruck by The Grand Canyon the previous day, we could hardly wait to arrive.

Getting There

Located in southwest Utah, Bryce Canyon is a pain to get to.

There are multiple ways to arrive at the park. You can come south from Salt Lake City, you can drive east from Las Vegas, you can drive north from Phoenix or heck, why not drive west from Denver!

Regardless of your route, getting there is likely out of the way and an adventure by itself. What the park lacks logistically, is made up by a beautiful drive. We decided to take the unorthodox way (or so we thought).

The morning of our visit was spent in Page, AZ, about two and a half hours from Bryce Canyon. We managed to watch sunrise at Horseshoe Bend before driving north to the park.

Originally, we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough time in Bryce Canyon. We knew there was a possibility that we overloaded our schedule. Thankfully, we were able to pull into the visitor center around 10:30am.

After buying gifts, we found a ranger to speak with about the best trails to hike. He suggested we park by Sunrise Point, hike the Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden Trail (2.9 miles), then take Sunset to Sunrise (1.1 miles) trail back to the car.

So that’s exactly what we did. Well, sort of…

The Adventure

The drive from the visitor center to the trailhead was through a forest, but we still had not seen any hoodoos. We had no visuals of the amphiteater or even rocks until we parked and walked up to the Sunset Point overlook.

The anticipation leading up to our first viewing made the reveal even better. We found ourselves stumbling over our words as we tried to comment at first glance. What the heck were we looking at?

After a few minutes of scanning the horizon, we began our hike.

The ranger did warn us about ice and suggested we use traction grips. Since we handled the steep icy slopes the day before, we felt confident we would be okay.

Thankfully, we were correct. There was ice at the beginning of the trail, but the sun was making it a sludge, despite a high of 37 degrees!

The first mile of the hike was through unique stones and structures. Walking on desert sand with very few trees around. We looked around in amazement as we moved lower into the canyon.

As we continued, the trail began to change scenery. We started in desert sand and stone, now we were walking through a snow covered forest.

We both love snow and haven’t seen much in the past few years, so we were excited!

So far the hike had been relatively easy. We spent the first mile going downhill and the second mile on flat ground. This concluded the Queen’s Garden Trail portion of the trail, we were then supposed to take Navajo Loop north to Sunset Point.

At the intersection where the trails meet, we saw a sign pointing towards Peakaboo Loop Trail. This would add an extra 5.5 miles if we decided to do it. We were having so much fun on our hike already, so we decided not to end it yet!

The Peakaboo Loop trailhead was a little off the path we were supposed to take, and we weren’t positive we were going the correct way. Thankfully, there was a group of guys doing the same thing, so we all walked together and chatted until we found the start.

Beginning with a pretty big elevation gain, we were winded after finally reaching the summit. What we then saw was an immediate payoff!

We really cannot emphasize how much fun this trail was. There are views of every angle of the park, a variety of terrain/ scenery, and half of it was covered in a fluffy snow. We felt like we were walking through a western movie.

Nearing the end of the loop, the park continued to impress us with beautiful landscapes.

Completing the loop, we now had the rest of the Navajo Loop to finish.

By now, we had hiked around 7 miles, so our legs were feeling it. Unknowingly to us, the final stretch of the trail is a brutal set of switchbacks. We were pumped when we made it to the top. Until we realized we had another mile to walk back to the car…

Fortunately, Bryce Canyon is the National Park that keeps on giving.

During our walk along the canyon rim, part of the Sunset to Sunrise trail, the entire path is essentially an overlook. Easy to walk for anyone.

Towards the end of the trail, we ran into multiple deer strolling through the forest.

We have plenty of deer in North Carolina, but these were the biggest deer we have ever seen! As we watched the herd, a father and son noticed. We talked with them while still observing the wild animals.

Once we had our fill of deer-watching, we arrived at our car and ate some much needed snacks. To recap our hike:

• Park at Sunrise Point
• Navajo Loop & Queen’s Garden Tail (2.9 miles)
• Peakaboo Loop (5.1 miles)
• Sunset to Sunrise Trail (1.1 miles)

That makes a pleasant 9.1 miles. AllTrails rates the hike as “moderate”, which is probably correct. There were never any parts of the trail that seemed dangerous, but there was a bit of elevation which could make it more difficult for some.

Overall, we would recommend imitating this day to anyone. We had a blast, accomplished what we hoped for, and didn’t feel rushed. 10/10!

Our Evening

As always, we asked the park ranger where to watch sunset. He informed us that, ironically, sunset point is not the best spot. According to him, Inspiration Point is the ideal location.

Additionally, he told us that a popular thing to do, is drive through the park, stop at the overlooks, until reaching the end at Yovimpa Point. We actually did start making the drive after our hike, but turned around early because we didn’t want to miss sunset.

Parking at Inspiration Point, we layered up because the temperature was now in the 20s!

Fighting the wind, we made the short walk and quickly forgot about the bitter cold as we stared in awe.

Waiting for as long as we could, we came back to the car and shared a sad goodbye to the park.

Leaving, we stopped for gas and food right outside the exit.

There were a few different options right outside of the park. We stopped first at Ruby’s Inn General Store, where they had tons of souvenirs, shirts, cowboy hats, and a steakhouse.

Wanting something more casual than a steakhouse, we went next door to Canyon Diner. The food was perfect for hitting the road.

Our next Airbnb was about an hour away in Orderville, UT. We were excited to get some sleep, because our next day was not only Christy’s birthday, but we would be in Zion National Park hiking Angel’s Landing.

We hope you will visit Bryce Canyon after reading our journey. It’s truly an indescribable place that needs to be experienced by everyone.

Cheers!