Our Utah Adventure: Day Three: Part IV: Bryce Canyon "Navajo Loop"

 This is a continuation of a travel series to Utah.  To start at the beginning, go  HERE.  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

In last week's travel post we started our hike into the canyon on the "Queen's Garden Trail".  Now, you can go back up the same way you came down or you hook into the "Navajo Loop" to get back to the rim of the canyon.  We decided we didn't want to just turn around and go back, so we took the Navajo Loop Trail back.

I enclosed a map of the trails as my explanation can get complicated.  Because he Navajo Loop Trail is a loop,  if you hook into it from another trail like we did you are going to miss half of it.  We went back up to the rim via the south side of the trail because we really wanted to see "Wall Street" (An amazing trail and the best trail in the park in my opinion.   I will feature it after Christmas break).  But because we took that part of the loop back to our car, we missed "Two Bridges".  "Thor's Hammer" can be seen from Sunset Point because it is so large, so we didn't miss that.

So in other words, this post will only cover half of the Navajo Loop trail because that is all we saw.  You can always google "Two Bridges, Bryce Canyon" if you want to see what the other half of the trail is like.

Navajo Loop Trail is very different than Queen's Garden or the Rim Walk.  You are deep in the canyon, but it seems more forestry, and you can actually find a little bit of shade here and there.  I thought the contrast of the evergreens growing among the rock was breath-taking.  I also marveled how they could grow at all in such a dry, rocky, landscape.

The loop is 1.3 miles and is only open as a loop in summer because Wall Street is too dangerous to hike other times of the year.

My "boys" always like to have fun taking pictures like this.

I enjoyed crawling into this little hole, can you see me?  Boy was I covered in dust after I did this!

Here's a close up of me in the same hole.

We did see horseback riders in the distance.  Can you see them in the upper center of this picture?  I had no idea you could horseback in Bryce Canyon.  If I took this trip all over again, I would definitely do this.  It's pretty hard hiking for five days, it would have been a nice break. I believe it costs around $65 per person.

It's always nice when they put benches on a trail, and this trail had a few shady stone benches to enjoy.  My son and I spotted this one and sat down for a few minutes to rest and wait for my husband to catch up.  He usually always trails behind us as he is always stopping to take photos.  When he caught up to us he laughed and said "Uh, I don't know if that's the best place to sit.  You should see what is above you".  Unbeknownst to us, we were sitting under a gigantic rock formation that looked like it could tip over at any moment! 🤣.   You'll be able to see it in the picture after this one.

I will be taking a two week Christmas break starting next week Monday.  My Utah travel posts will resume after the New Year.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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