Do you need 2 easy hikes in Bryce Canyon? If you’re stopping for a day or two in Utah to check out the hoodoos, make sure you walk them!
Whether you’re a novice and need something short and easy, or you’re a seasoned pro who can hit the trails for hours at a time, hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park is something anyone can do.
I was only able to spend one evening and one morning in the park. This put a limit on the distance for me. Instead of setting out on some of the longer trails, I picked two easy and shorter hikes. One I did in the evening after setting up camp, and the other in the morning after breakfast and coffee.
QUEEN’S GARDEN
Trail Name: Queens Garden
Trailhead Address: Bryce Canyon National Park
Directions: Access this trail from Sunrise Point
Trail Length: 1.8mi
Admission fee: $35 per vehicle to enter the park, unless you have an annual parks pass.
Difficulty: Labeled as Moderate.
Elevation Gain: 350ish ft.
Dogs: not allowed
Restrooms: in the parking lot
Parking: Tons of parking lots. It can get busy and you may need to walk a bit to get to the trailhead.
Visited: May 2019
If you want the easiest way to get down with the hoodoos, the Queen’s Garden trail will be the least difficult. It is still rated as Moderate.
This trail is a short down and back (not a loop).
Switchbacks will lead you down 350ft or so to the bottom where you round a corner to come face to face with a really cool rock shaped like Queen Victoria.
You start out at 8000 ft before descending, so keep this in mind. This is a fairly short and ‘easy’ trail, unless you aren’t used to the elevation. At elevation, you can struggle on the way up and may need to stop regularly to catch your breath. I live in the flattest part of Texas, so any time I hit elevation like this, easy hikes seem a whole lot harder on the lungs.
We were camping in the North Campgrounds, and this trail connects straight to the rim trail you can get on from your campsite. It added about an extra mile round trip onto the hike. I highly recommend adding the length vs driving to one of the other lots.
You can turn it into a much longer hike a few different ways. The most popular is to keep hiking once you’re at the bottom and add on the Navajo loop on after you see the Queen herself. This keeps it at a “moderate” hike, but adds on a few extra miles.
If open, you can also add the harder Peekaboo Loop after that. This combo of 3 trails turns it into what they consider a strenuous hike, at 6.4 miles, and they call this entire combo “the Figure 8 Combination”.
When I went, The Navajo portion was completely closed so we had to keep this a simple down and back to see the Queen then head back to camp to cook up dinner.
RIM TRAIL
Trail Name: RIM TRAIL
Trailhead Address: Bryce Canyon National Park
Directions: Access this trail from multiple locations around the park
Trail Length: Anywhere up to 11 miles depending on what you choose to hike
Admission fee: $35 per car to get in unless you have a yearly pass
Difficulty: Easy. This is the easiest of the 2 easy hikes in Bryce Canyon I’ve written about here.
Elevation Gain: About 1000 ft
Dogs: Allowed only on paved portions of trail (between sunset and sunrise point)
Restrooms: In parking lots
Parking: Plenty
Visited: May 2019
Have another day to spare or some more time? Here’s another one of the 2 easy hikes in Bryce Canyon.
The Rim Trail keeps you above all the hoodoos. Walking along the edge of Bryce Amphitheater, you get to see each of the viewpoints and everything in between them.
If you start on the far side at Fairyland Point and hike all the way to Bryce Point and back again, it is 11 miles. You will go up and down in elevation along the way. If you want to cut this short, you can always hop on one of the shuttles to get you to one end and hike back to your car or campsite.
The portion of the rim between Sunset and Sunrise points is the most well traveled, because it is paved. This is the portion that dogs are allowed on, and wheelchairs and strollers can be pushed on. (just don’t try to take your doggo off the pavement, just like in most parks).
From there you can continue on, passing Sunset and Inspiration Points before getting to Bryce Point, the furthest in the amphitheater.
The views are unbelievable along this trail.
Less about the tourists and more about the nature and solitude? Skirt on by most of the points and then slow down for some alone time on the path between them. There are plenty of places to sit down and enjoy the view without the crowding once you’re off the more popular platforms.
Do you think these are the 2 easy hikes in Bryce Canyon, or did you struggle with them? Which ones would you add to the list and where in Utah would you love to hike?
