Hey, everybody. It's Glenn with the Cactus Atlas
at Bryce Canyon National Park about to hit the Queen's Garden Trail at sunrise.
We're out here pre-dawn.
[Music]
It's Labor Day weekend and I was very fearful of crowds
and you should be fearful of crowds just any old time here in my experience.
Yeah, I just wanted to get out here before the hordes come in and
also see a really beautiful place at sunrise.
Now I see a really big difference as I look through the viewfinder of this other camera here.
You're starting to see the light. It might be time to get ready to start.
The excitement is starting to mount. This is starting to get awesome.
Well, it started off awesome. It's even getting more awesome now.
[Music]
Alright, the sun is up and I'm gonna start going down into this loop.
It's amazing but you can see there's quite a few folks out now.
One thing to note is we're facing east when you go down this thing so the
sun's gonna be all in your face when the sun rises as you head down.
Let's go check this place out though.
[Music]
Now we're heading down the Queen's Garden Loop
so we get a different perspective of the canyon.
Oh! You can see some beautiful light out there on some of these hoodoos already.
Well not already. It's almost too late now.
The sun is
definitely coming up.
Bryce Canyon remains one of my top favorites of all time.
It's not that big compared to other parks,
especially this amphitheater area that we're descending down to now.
You can do some of these loop hikes pretty quickly
but you can also combine loops and I did a video about that called
the Figure 8 Combination Loop.
You can combine the Queen's Garden Loop with something called the Peekaboo Loop
forming a figure eight.
If you wanna check that video out, I'll put a link in the description down below.
[Music]
Here's the part where I regret not bringing my sunglasses.
These forests here are beautiful too.
All these pine trees glowing in the early morning sun.
You can even see more hoodoos over that ways.
Ah! Hoodoos. Are you guys familiar with the word hoodoo?
I didn't make it up. I promise you.
Those are hoodoos.
These rock spire formations that you're gonna see all over the place.
I mean probably tens of thousands of them.
The ones beyond here...
All hoodoos standing sentinel.
That one has like a mushroom head or a Hershey Kiss for a head.
Take your pick. I'll leave that up to you.
You can actually see the trail where we're going to be heading shortly.
We're heading all the way down there and yes, you do have to walk back out.
You've got a couple options for how to do that.
This looks like a tree octopus. That's frightening.
Imagine if this thing just kind of, lie, started moving like that monster in Aliens and
like, jumped and sucked onto my face.
Alright, now we're really getting down in there.
Heading down this trail here.
[Music]
I'm not sure you can say you lived a complete life until you've come here
to Bryce Canyon at least one time.
We are right beneath these really tall rock spires now
and really neat window formation up there too.
Yeah, now I'm really deep inside and we keep descending. You go down fast here.
[Music]
Alright, I'm in the Queen's Garden per se.
This is a spectacular spot. This is the end of the Queen's Garden Trail.
I never walked all the way to the end last time I went to the Navajo Loop and then up Wall Street,
like, that direction but this wasn't that much further so
don't miss out on this when you come here because this might be one of the best spots.
[Music]
Alright, we're gonna continue.
I think we've got about another mile and a half to get out of the canyon.
We do have to go up and I gotta decide which way I want to go and
I'll explain more in a minute.
There's a little Bryce Canyon chipmunk.
Squirrely little guy there.
That's actually Queen Victoria up there. The statue and I kind of see it.
It looks like a figure standing up.
The next order of business now is to get out of the canyon and we do have to, you know,
ascend and there are two ways to do that I believe.
One is called Wall Street and that takes you up this really steep winding staircase and
through this like really narrow passage where cliffs loom like probably hundreds,
if not a thousand feet above you or more.
I did that last time I was here so I'm thinking of doing the other way up.
[Music]
A really helpful tip to note, especially if you're not familiar with
Bryce is that we're at a high elevation.
I think Sunset Point was 8,000 feet or something like that or Sunrise.
It gets cold over here.
Right now it's actually really warm.
So in addition to bringing something warm make sure you bring a backpack or something
so you can actually remove that warm clothing when it gets too hot.
Which I think I'm about to do.
Now that's so much better. I was sweating under that.
Sporting my new Joshua Tree t-shirt, by the way. Do you like that?
Anyway, didn't come here to show off my t-shirts.
We need to continue to get out of this place.
Now that we're getting away from Queen's Garden you can see there's
not as many hoodoos over here.
I mean there still are some you just have to turn around and look.
You do get this really beautiful pine forest out here and it's nice and cool.
Now that I took my hoodie off. [Laughter]
It's hard to believe that i think somewhere up there
is the Peekaboo Loop which we did before and if that's true,
if you had to ascend to the top of that thing that was some work.
I think we're gonna be working it here in a second or two.
We're coming up on that cliff face and I think our
choice to be made about which trail to take.
[Music]
I'm actually a little torn here
because even though I've already done Wall Street before...
you know it's not always open. I think they close it during the winter.
Alright, let's do this. Let's do it!
Intensity, man!
This is pretty hardcore because
we have to climb
up and out of this place.
Very abruptly too.
You can see... that's not trivial.
If you're gonna come down here, you gotta get back up so keep that in mind.
Maybe try the Navajo Loop that we aren't doing, the one that I still have not yet done,
because I think that one might be a tad bit easier I here.
I'm not sure but, yeah, we're about to get real.
[Music]
Wow. Look at that.
These really weird formations right above our heads here.
Here's where it gets really narrow and kind of slot-like.
[Music]
Alright, I am at the very bottom here of Wall Street and about to
hit up these switchbacks.
[Music]
Up up and up. Switchback after switchback.
My second time doing this.
This isn't bad at all, to be honest. This isn't that hard.
Although I'm stopping a lot to take pictures so maybe I'm cheating a little bit but
we're... we're almost there.
It's a long way down though, isn't it?
You can see the lookout point up there. That's our destination.
Right up there. So close yet so far.
Alright, I'm building up a good sweat now.
I think I'm on the last couple switchbacks.
Our progress has been awesome.
[Music]
What a fantastic view that is.
Okay, all that remains now is a quick walk on the Rim Trail.
I'm at Sunset Point.
I need to go back to Sunrise Point where I started to see how filled up the parking lot is
and hopefully, be able to get out of this place.
Alright, there you have it Bryce Canyon sunrise hike down Queen's Garden.
I would have to say that might be the top moment of 2021 so far.
I don't know if you guys agree with that
but that was something special.
All I can wish is that you too one day
will be able to experience that for yourself.
[Music]