Red Canyon: Hoodoo Trail

There are a couple short trails around the Visitor Center of Red Canyon, just outside Bryce Canyon, one of the shorter easier ones being the Hoodoo Trail. It is a super short loop that offers some nice views and is a good introductory way to explore Red Canyon. Last time we were here we did a segment of this from a pull out lust a little west of here.

Quick Details:

Length: .0.3 mile loop
Difficulty: DR2.5. Super easy and short.
Elevation Gain: 22 feet.
Restroom: There is one at the visitor center, but it is closed in the off months.
Dogs? Not sure.

To Get Here:

This on the west side of the Red Canyon Visitor Center, just a few miles west of Bryce Canyon.

The Trail:

The 2 hoodoos for which the trail is named.

Pretty red cliffs.

Ponderosa Pine trunk.

Information sign. It explains that the bark looks kind of like a jigsaw puzzle because the pieces will pop off in a low intensity fire to help save the tree. It doesn’t really cover why it smells that way, just that if you do smell that, this is the reason.

The hoodoos again.

Pretty cliffs.

More neat formations.

Little hoodoo.

The hoodoos from the other side.

Here you can connect to the Birdseye Trail if you want a little more adventure.

Neat Juniper Tree.

Cliffs.

The hoodoos.

From below.

Neat dead tree.

Lichen covered rock.

The signs on this trail are weird. They broach a topic, and then talk about something else entirely. So, this one talks about the 2 organisms that make lichen, the algae produces food, while the fungus gathers water. The 2 organisms working together is called symbiosis.

Oh, the footnote here is they need clean air.to grow. To add to that, what we learned on the Desert Voices Trail is the more vibrant they are, the cleaner the air.

Yucca, I think.

Somewhere around here you can connect to the Pink Ledges Trail which as I understand is only another half mile. I wanted to do that, but the legs had enough hiking in the last few days and they were not going to let that happen.

Little hoodoos.

Weird tree by the visitor center.

Well, that was a neat little loop. Super short and easy and a nice easy way to see some of the nice sights in Red Canyon. Going with a DR7.

As for difficulty, I would almost rate this as a DR2 it is so short and easy, I’m going to go with a 2.5

As for dogs, I am leaning towards them being allowed, but I don’t know for sure. So when that is the case I err on the safe side and say leave Fido in the hotel, not your car though.