Bryce Canyon Loop Hikes – Queens Garden and Fairyland

Down, But Definitely Not Out!

As we dragged our worn and sore bodies into Bryce Canyon National Park from our Escalante adventures, Peekaboo and Spooky Slot Canyons and Coyote Gulch, we were looking for a short hike. My daughter Amanda, ever the planner, quickly set us up to do a 3-mile loop in Queens Garden. These being super-maintained trails, after 16-17 miles in the sand, this sounded just about right to us. Bryce Canyon loop hikes sounded great!

We checked into our hotel just to unload the vehicles and get a quick bite to eat. After the wonderful culinary experience in Escalante, we were a little bit surprised to learn that Bryce offered no such fun. The food there was drab and mass-produced. It wasn’t awful, it was just bland and pedestrian with little creativity…our impression of Bryce was one of mass-produced vacation. Lots of people and lots of cars.

Queens Garden Loop

We were able to buy an annual park pass at the hotel which was a big plus, avoiding any line to get into the park. We quickly headed to the trailhead, electing to hike the trail counter-clockwise from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point. I was amazed at the number of people on this trail! We passed a number of folks who were clearly in distress as they climbed out of the canyon. This was my first realization that the Bryce trails would be fairly strenuous.

As we neared the bottom of the hike, the people thinned out quite a bit. At no point on this hike were we ever lacking for beautiful scenery. Bryce is one of the most visually stunning of parks and we stopped frequently to take photos and enjoy the crazy colors and scenery. I particularly loved the deep blue sky against the crazy hues of red, orange, and yellow of the beautiful rocks. At the bottom of the trail trees start to dominate the landscape making shade to relieve you from the constant sun.

The hike out was not as strenuous as I’d feared. Unlike the Escalante hikes where we encountered so many fit and athletic folks, the hikers here were maybe a little more…touristy. So we scooted right out of this place, despite sore legs and joints from the Escalante side. Thor’s Hammer was particularly spectacular, but really this whole trail has such a high concentration of stunning views per mile. I doubt many trails in the world can compete with this 3-mile, 800-foot vertical hike for pure visual impact.

A little Planning

After we finished off the Queens Garden loop, Tammy and I were pointedly reminded of our sore Coyote Gulch legs from only the day before! We were truly exhausted and as Amanda presented her plans to do the Fairyland Loop with its 8.3 miles and 2200 feet of vertical, I think we were both mulling over whether to go or not. If you haven’t done a comparable hike, it is fairly strenuous. Anything over 2000 feet of vertical in a day (this was a loop so we went up as much as we went down) is pretty significant for most folks.

Tammy and I let Amanda and Sydney know that we were quite possibly not going to make this trip with them. As we ate dinner and had a drink or two before bed, neither of us felt like another 8 or 9 miles and 2200 feet of vertical sounded very fun. We committed to making a decision over breakfast and hatching a plan that would work for all of us.

A Brand New Day

On our Ruby Crest Trail hike I learned that taking two Aleve/naproxen sodium at bedtime yields nothing short of a morning miracle. When I awoke, my legs felt a little sore but I was truly ready to go. Tammy wasn’t so sure but I could tell that she was in. She is strong and always a tough person who hates to miss out on any adventure! We ate a very pedestrian hotel café breakfast and loaded up for the trip to Sunrise Point! We arrived and parked near the General Store, which turned out to be a good place to return to at the end of the day.

As we prepared for our hike, I was reminded that so many people do arrive early to catch the sunrise at Bryce Canyon. It wasn’t packed though, and we soon found that we had the trail more or less to ourselves. Down we trekked into deep ravines and onto small ridges decorated with yellows, golds, orange, and reds. The beautiful deep blue sky and dark green trees and shrubs offset the warm tones beautifully. The whole thing was a study in contrasts.

Fairyland for Sure

This truly was the high point for us from a purely visual perspective. While Queen’s Garden packed a massive wallop, pound-for-pound, Fairyland was worth every extra step. Everything was spectacular and contrasty and beautiful. Seems cliché to write it that way, but my eyes were wide for the entire trip. Both Tammy and I were up for the trip and the girls held up for us as we made our way back out of the canyon.

The surprise of the trip came once we hit the top. At that point we realized we still had quite a bit of climbing to do along the hill between Sunrise and Sunset points. The climb was easy and we were rewarded with more Bristlecone Pine sightings which meant something to me; however, it was still a pretty long path we had back to the truck at that point!

Worth it? Bryce Canyon Loop Redux

We’d been to Bryce before, but with little kids, we didn’t feel we could really hike out on long treks. We enjoyed not taxing ourselves in those days! But this time, the short loop followed by the long loop was perfect. These are hikes I’d be more than willing to do again. I especially enjoyed sharing them with my wife and my daughter and her pal.

If you go, figure on Fairyland consuming enough of a day to maybe pull in your horns for the rest. Yes, we could have done both in a day, for sure; however, I don’t know we’d have enjoyed the second hike that much. For me, Bryce is not much more than a two-day adventure, although there are many more remote trails that are also pretty advanced. If you do go to Bryce, please consider hiking one or both of these intense and beautiful loops!