Bryce Canyon (Part 5 - Peekaboo)

     The final leg of our hike through Bryce Canyon National Park took us south on the Peekaboo Loop from the end of the Queens Garden Trail to Bryce Point. We started in the very bottom of the canyon and steadily climbed our way out to Bryce over the 3.3 miles of trail. It is much less crowded than the first trails we hiked as you have to be willing to do at least five miles of hiking to get onto this loop.

North end of Peekaboo Loop

Our destination, Bryce Point, in the distance.

Every rock in the park that even slightly resembled anything was named, but nobody noticed pig rock. Looks like a big hog to me.

Steep switchbacks

     Peekaboo is a directional trail that is open to hikers and horses with each moving in the opposite direction. We got plenty more good views of the hoodoos and did run into some horses along the way. The second horse group was led by a guide and he stopped for a short chat with us. He asked where we were from and we said Tennessee. Turns out they get their mules and horses from a farm less than an hour away from us in Gallatin, TN.

Wall of Windows

Horses by the Wall of Windows

What Shannon was looking at in the picture above.

These rocks look like they have concrete snow caps.

Nearing the top of the climb

View from the top of the trail at the Bryce Point parking lot

     Our total hiking for the day was only 7.2 miles, but it was a tough 7.2 with a lot of switchbacks and steep pitches. Moving time on the hike was 5 hours 10 minutes. We climbed 2,600 feet on the day, all between 7,300 and 8,400 feet elevation. It was one of the best hikes I have ever done. It's hard to beat the views, which change around every corner. We hopped the shuttle back to the campground and then went out to eat at the Cowboy's Buffet & Steak Room, which was really tasty after a long day in the dust. Tomorrow we roll out of Bryce and head east into some other parts of Utah. More coming on that in the next post.

Bryce Canyon (Part 4 - Queens Garden)

     Our day of hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park continued from Sunrise Point where we hopped onto the 1.8-mile Queens Garden Trail, dropping below the rim and weaving our way through the walls and hoodoos. The walls are everywhere and provide constantly changing views. You see one view then round the next corner and get at a slightly different angle. Suddenly, walls and hoodoos that were blocked in the last view are now visible. We were in constant awe as we descended into the canyon. Queens Garden Trail is much more open than Navajo Loop, so there are more wide open views of the amphitheater.

The view starting into the Queens Garden Trail

Bryce Point in the distance

Trail down below

This boulder was held up by the smallest of props

     The new Pentax camera has been good for this trip. I could tell it was slightly better with pictures when we were in Wyoming. Now that we have learned how to use it and encountered some better weather, it is really showing what it can do and the pictures are much better than my small Nikon. The Pentax really captures the colors of the rocks and the sky, while being more crisp on all the rock edges. All the pictures in the post came from the Pentax as it totally blew away the Nikon on this part of the hike.

     The Queens Garden Trail gets its name from a rock formation near the bottom of the trail. There is a hoodoo that strangely resembles the Queen Victoria statue in London, England. I think the resemblance is pretty easy to see in the pictures, but it was even more striking in person.

The sign at the hoodoo that shows the statue compared to the hoodoo.

Queen Victoria Hoodoo

Queen Victoria Hoodoo

Narrow passage near the bottom of the trail

     Queens Garden dumps you out at the bottom of the Navajo Loop where you have three options on how to get back to the rim. You can take Navajo Loop either direction for the same trail we saw this morning, you can backtrack up Queens Garden like we just came down, or you can take the Peekaboo Loop over to Bryce Point. We were feeling good so we decided to go for Peekaboo Loop which was another 3.3 miles to Bryce Point with plenty of climbing to get you back to the overlook. I had seen Peekaboo from Bryce Point the day before and really wanted to get on that trail at some point if possible. It goes into the southern half of the main part of the amphitheater and goes through some very different rocks as compared to Navajo and Queens Garden. We ate lunch on a pine log and then started into Peekaboo. More on that part of the hike in the next post.