After having looked down into the canyon from overlooks, we really wanted to hike down in to see the hoodoos from a different perspective. A front was moving in today and it was predicted to be cooler and windy, perfect hiking conditions. We drove back to Sunset Point in the park. Pam and Lacy settled down by the car while Leslie, Bill and David put on our packs and headed to the Navajo Loop Trailhead. This is another very popular hike and there were a lot of people on the trail. The Navajo Loop Trail (1.76 miles, 495 feet of elevation gain, 688 calories burned) goes down the Two Bridges Trail and back up the Wall Street trail creating a loop. There are a lot of switchbacks going down before you hit a short relatively flat trail and then 29 switchbacks going back up. The views along the trail are magnificent and we took lots of pictures! We went around the loop clockwise since we had been told that was the easiest way back up. It only took 1.5 hours for the hike with us stopping to take so many pictures. It is definitely a different perspective looking up at the hoodoos verses looking down from the canyon rim. The climb back up wasn’t too bad considering the altitude since the switchbacks helped keep the climbing angles reasonable. The trail was is in reasonable shape but it was clear that they had a lot of repairs to make from last winter’s damage.
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| Hoodoos at eye level going down Two Bridges Trail |
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| Switchbacks going down Two Bridges Trail |
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| Switchbacks going down Two Bridges Trail |
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| Switchbacks going down Two Bridges Trail |
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| Two Bridges |
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| Start of the climb back out on Wall Street Trail |
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| Hoodoos towering above us |
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| The hoodoos look a lot bigger from here |
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| Feeling small |
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| Wall Street |
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| Start of the switchbacks going back up on Wall Street Trail |
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| switchbacks going back up on Wall Street Trail |
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| switchbacks going back up on Wall Street Trail |
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| Almost to the top |
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