Top Short Hikes in Bryce Canyon
February 5, 2016

Queen’s Garden

The easiest trail into, and more importantly out of, the canyon, the Queen’s garden Trail is not a loop. The trail ends at rest benches near the formation know as Queen Victoria in an area of the Bryce Amphitheater called the Queen’s Garden; The way out is back up the same trail used for the descent. A connecting trail near the end of the Queen’s garden Tail provides access to the Navajo Loop and Peekaboo Loop trails.

* Distance: 1.8 mi / 2.9 km
* Estimated Time: 1-2 hours
* Elevation Change: 357 ft / 109 m
* Difficulty: Easy

Mossy Cave

Stream side walk up to a mossy overhang and small waterfall. (Waterfall flows May to October)

* Distance: 1.8 mi / 2.9 km
* Estimated Time: 1-2 hours
* Elevation Change: 357 ft / 109 m
* Easy

Bristlecone Loop

This loop trail is entirely above the canyon rim. The walk provides some lofty rim views as well as a closeup look at the park’s oldest living inhabitants, the bristlecone pines.

* Distance: 1 mi / 1.6 km
* Estimated Time: 1 hour
* Elevation Change: 200 ft / 61 m
* Difficulty: Easy

Rim Trail

A one-mile, paved trail links Sunrise and Sunset points, and follows the rim of the Bryce Amphitheater. Along its path, there are numerous benches where you can stop and soak up vistas of the hoodoos below. Along the rim itself, limber pine trees, their roots often exposed, show how the land here continues to erode. The roots of these trees, some of them hundreds of years old, used to be below ground. Scientists estimate the rim of Bryce is eroding at a rate of two to four feet every century.

* Distance: 1 mi / 1.6 km
* Estimated Time: 1 hour
* Difficulty: Easy

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