Fairyland Loop

The Fairyland Loop is the longest and most remote maintained trail in Bryce Canyon's rim amphitheater, circling through a separate northern section of the park called Fairyland that most visitors skip in favor of the more famous Navajo and Queens Garden areas. The result is a dramatic, crowd-free experience through dense forests of hoodoos, tower formations, and eroded fins that equal anything in the main amphitheater. The loop descends from Fairyland Point into the basin, traverses around Tower Bridge — a natural arch spanning between two spires — and climbs back to the rim via a different route.

The clay and dirt surface drains poorly and is extremely slippery when wet; clear days are essential for safe passage on the steeper switchbacks. In exchange for the challenge, hikers encounter almost no other people past the first mile, and the silence of the hoodoo forest — broken only by wind and the piping of canyon wrens — is remarkable. The loop can be accessed from either Fairyland Point at the north or Sunrise Point in the main amphitheater, allowing a car shuttle that skips the return climb. Spring and fall visits find the orange and white hoodoos backlit against deep blue sky or punctuated with patches of snow, producing some of the most extraordinary landscapes in the American Southwest.