EXPLORE
A Walk in the Park BRYCE CANYON Queen’s Garden 1.8 miles Descending from the famed Sunrise Point, wide open vistas and scenic views of Bryce Canyon’s hoodoos define the Queen’s Garden trail. Out and back, this short hike is the easiest available in the national park. Descending below the canyon rim, hikers can choose to loop back up to the rim or combine it with Navajo Loop for a longer, more strenuous hiking experience.
Bryce Canyon
LAKE POWELLGRAND STAIRCASE Devils Garden
ACADIA Cadillac Mountain, North Ridge
1 mile There’s no better introduction to hiking the arid, trail-less slickrock landscape typical of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument than Devils Garden, a 1-square-mile collection of sandstone hoodoos, arches, and toadstool rocks formed over the last 166 million years by erosion and weathering. None of the trails here are marked, and that’s part of what makes hiking here so interesting. Bonus points for packing a picnic—a picnic area here has tables, fire pits, and elevated grills.
4 miles round-trip At 1,529 feet in elevation, Cadillac Mountain is the highest point in the park and on the U.S.’s eastern seaboard. You can drive to the top (where there’s a half-mile paved pathway loop), but the effort of walking the 2 miles and 1,150 vertical feet up the mountain’s North Ridge Trail is worth it for the views along the way—Eagle Lake, Dorr Mountain, and Bar Harbor.
