Navajo Loop & Queen's Garden Trail

It is two trails walked as one. Queen's Garden drops off the rim at Sunrise Point through the open, sunlit side of the Bryce Amphitheatre; Navajo Loop climbs back to Sunset Point through the narrow, shaded slot the park calls Wall Street. The half mile of paved Rim Trail between the two viewpoints closes the circle, which is why a 2.9-mile route ends where it started without a car shuttle.

The National Park Service rates it Moderate — its own definition is “less than 1000 feet elevation gain, moderate length” — and states 2.9 miles (4.6 km), 625 feet (191 m) of elevation change and 2–3 hours. Our own arithmetic disagrees with that last figure in a useful way: run 2.9 miles and 625 feet through Naismith's rule and you get about 1 hour 15 minutes of moving time — roughly half. The park is not wrong and neither are we, and the gap IS the hike: an hour and a bit of it is walking, and the rest is standing still with your head tipped back, which on this trail is the point rather than a delay. Budget the park's number; expect ours on the move.

What makes it worth the descent rather than another viewpoint: hoodoos only read as columns when you are standing under them. From the rim they are texture. Fifteen minutes down Queen's Garden they are architecture.

The trailhead is Sunrise Point or Sunset Point — either works, but the direction below decides which one you want to start from. Both sit on the same amphitheatre rim, half a mile apart on a paved path.

Parking is the first real obstacle, and the park is unusually blunt about why: “The number one cause of parking lot congestion is hikers whose cars sit in popular overlook parking lots for multiple hours while they hike. When these parking lots reach capacity, they may be temporarily closed until parking becomes available.” That is a description of exactly what this hike does to a car park — 2 to 3 hours, at the two busiest viewpoints in the park.

The answer is the free shuttle, included with park admission, running April through mid-October — 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the shoulder months and until 8:00 p.m. from May to September. It stops at both Sunrise and Sunset Point, so you can ride in, walk the loop, and ride out without ever holding a parking space. Note that pets are not allowed on the shuttle either.

NPS recommends a specific direction, and it is not arbitrary: start at Sunrise Point, descend Queen's Garden, ascend the Navajo Loop to Sunset Point (preferably by the Two Bridges side), then walk the Rim Trail back. Three reasons, all of them practical — the canyon stays in front of you instead of behind you on the way down, the steeper Navajo side is the side you climb rather than descend, which is where falls happen, and it spreads traffic on a busy trail.

• Sunrise Point. The descent starts immediately — there is no flat warm-up. Switchbacks, then a traverse.
• Queen's Garden. The open side: fins, windows, and the spur to the hoodoo named for Queen Victoria. This is the gentler grade, and it is why you walk it downhill.
• The connector. Briefly flat, through pines on the amphitheatre floor. The only part of the route that feels like an ordinary forest walk.
• Navajo Loop, upward. Tight switchbacks between walls. This is the 625 feet, and most of it arrives in the last twenty minutes.
• Sunset Point to Sunrise Point. Half a mile of paved level Rim Trail, with the whole route you just walked laid out below.

Wall Street is not always open. The park states that “the Wall Street side of the Navajo Loop is closed in months when precipitation combines with freezing overnight temperatures” — in practice, the cold half of the year. It is not a fixed date, so check the park's conditions page before you count on that particular slot. When Wall Street is shut the loop still works: the Two Bridges side stays open and the route is unchanged in length.

Go early. The amphitheatre faces east, which means the first hours after sunrise are when the hoodoos are lit rather than flattened, and it is also when the trail is empty and the rim car parks are not yet full. This is one of the few hikes where the best light and the best logistics happen at the same hour.

The rim sits near 8,000 feet, so the air is thin and dry and the sun is stronger than the temperature suggests — a cool morning can still burn you. Plan the climb out for shade or for early, not for mid-afternoon.

Things that are true about this hike and rarely make the trail descriptions:

• There is no water below the rim. The fill stations are at Sunset Point — inside the restroom year-round, outside seasonally — and at the General Store near Sunrise Point in season. Whatever you drink on the loop, you carry from the top.
• The exit is the hard part. You descend first and climb last, on the steepest section, at altitude, usually with the sun higher than when you set off. Budget the back half generously.
• It is the busiest trail in the park. The park says so itself. That is a reason to walk it, and a reason to walk it at 7 a.m.
• Restrooms are at the rim only — accessible ones at Sunset Point year-round, seasonal ones at the General Store.
• No permit, no reservation for the hike itself; the park lists no activity fee, and entrance fees apply as usual.

Kids. We rate this comfortable from about age six. That is our own hand-check of the length, the footing and the climb back out, not an NPS grade — the park publishes difficulty, not ages. Younger children manage the top of Queen's Garden and turn around; the switchbacks on the Navajo side are the part that decides it. It is not a stroller route: NPS states plainly that “due to the park's natural terrain, this is not considered an accessible trail.”

Dogs. Not allowed on this trail, and not allowed on any trail below the rim. Bryce permits pets only on paved surfaces — campgrounds, parking areas, paved roads and paved viewpoints — plus two walks that are genuinely worth doing: the Rim Trail between Sunset Point and Sunrise Point, which is the same half mile that closes this loop and looks straight down onto it, and the paved Shared Use Path from the park entrance to Inspiration Point. Leashes six feet or shorter, and dogs are not permitted on the shuttle. Service animals are allowed throughout.