QueensGarden

The Queen’s Garden Trail begins at Sunrise Point and traverses a section of Bryce Canyon
to the North of Bryce Amphitheater via the two arched tunnels which pass through fins that would
otherwise block the trail. This relatively easy trail passes by many unusually shaped hoodoos and
the spectacularly colored fins and hoodoos of the canyon walls on its way to the Queen Victoria
formation, where the Queen’s Garden Trail joins the Navajo Trail through Bryce Amphitheater.

This page displays half of the Queen’s Garden images available on the Photoshelter site.

Click an image to open a larger version.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail Winter 5389
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Hoodoos and erosion features below the rim on the Queen’s Garden Trail in late December.

The Queen’s Garden Trail and the Navajo Trail are the two most popular in Bryce Canyon, and
can get quite crowded from mid-morning to mid-afternoon during the tourist season. Early in the
morning during the season is the best time to see the Queen’s Garden with a minimum of tourists,
and the hoodoos are spectacular in early morning light. Mid-to-late afternoon in Winter is also great,
when the red-orange rock formations are dusted with snow and contrast brilliantly with the blue sky.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail Winter 5327
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Hoodoos and fins emerge from a blanket of snow in this view from the Queen’s Garden Trail in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail Winter 5369
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The low-angle light in the late afternoon causes some lighter areas of the hoodoos to appear to be translucent.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail Winter 5324
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Hoodoos and fins below the rim in the Queen’s Garden, dusted with snow in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden 1811
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Hoodoo formations below Sunset Point and Inspiration Point on the far cliff are framed between fins at the Queen’s Garden trailhead below Sunrise Point in late September.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden 1822
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The upper portion of the trail below Sunrise Point passes by several interesting hoodoos on the right side as you descend into the Queen’s Garden. Early morning in late September.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden 1823
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Detail of hoodoos atop a fin near the top of the Queen’s Garden Trail. You can see the
sedimentary layers in the horizontal lines of the formation. Vertical cracks widened by
frost wedging and further widened by rain erosion will eventually separate this fin into
individual hoodoos, like the formation seen below and those further down the page.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden X1969
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An early morning view of the hoodoo formation just below the trailhead of
the Queen’s Garden Trail near Sunrise Point, taken just after sunrise in June.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Sentinel 5412
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One of several hoodoos at Bryce Canyon unofficially named the “Sentinel” near the end of the descent from Sunrise Point.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Sentinel X2076
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The Sentinel image at left was shot in late afternoon in Winter. The image above was taken at mid-morning in June.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail 5589
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Juniper trees and hoodoos in the Queen’s Garden near the end of the
descent from the Sunrise Point trailhead in the early morning in late August.

Queen’s Garden Trail is one of the locations where I used to train photographers,
 and hoodoos in the Queen’s Garden are extremely attractive in the early morning.
 We most often hiked the Queen’s Garden Trail from Sunrise Point to the junction
of the Navajo Trail, just past the Queen Victoria formation, then on to Wall Street
Canyon when mid-morning light entered the canyon, and exited at Sunset Point.

This is the more difficult direction, as the switchbacks from Wall Street to
Sunset Point are quite steep. The ascent out of the canyon to Sunrise Point
is far less strenuous, but if you are planning on getting good photographs, the
light in the Wall Street area is not good until later in the morning, and the light on
the Queen’s Garden hoodoos is best in the early morning just after sunrise. If the
hike is more important than the photographs, or a steep ascent at the end of the
trail would be a problem physically, hike from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail X2078
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The Queen’s Garden Trail at mid-morning from the beginning of the ascent to Sunrise Point in June.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail X2079
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As this was a hot June morning, we turned around after shooting in Wall Street Canyon and returned to Sunrise Point.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden X2082
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Hoodoos and fins in the Queen’s Garden, from the ascent to Sunrise Point.
We were exiting the canyon as the temperature was climbing to 90 degrees.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Trail 1989
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Landscape on the Queen’s Garden Trail, on a late morning in September. The Rearing Horse hoodoo is at the top right.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden X2085
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Hoodoos rise above a fin in the Queen’s Garden, shot from the ascent to Sunrise Point at mid-morning in June.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5575
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Queen’s Garden hoodoos and fins in soft early morning light of a partially overcast
day in late August. The Rearing Horse hoodoo is in the upper left corner. Note the
difference in the color of the fins and hoodoos in the soft early morning light when
 compared to the harsh late morning light seen in image 1989 above left. These
fins are rich in manganese oxide, and in the right light they have a purple-pink
color cast. The glow of the hoodoos at sunrise and the colors which can be
captured in the right conditions make early morning the best time to shoot
 in the Queen’s Garden, although the late afternoon can also be quite nice.

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Bryce Canyon Window Fin Queen’s Garden 1838
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An iridescent fin with erosion windows, halfway between Sunrise Point and the Queen’s Garden in September.

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Bryce Canyon ET Queen’s Garden 5596
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The hoodoo unofficially called ET, overlooking a slope in the Queen’s Garden on a clear morning in August.

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Bryce Canyon ET and Queen’s Garden Hoodoos 5338
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The opposite side of the ET hoodoo, approaching the Elephant (in the center).

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Bryce Canyon Elephant Queens Garden 5372
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A telephoto detail portrait of the Elephant hoodoo near ET in the Queen’s Garden, in the late afternoon in December.

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Bryce Canyon Elephant and ET Queen’s Garden 5373
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A wider shot of the Elephant with ET defocused in the right background. Two of the fanciful Queen’s Garden hoodoos.

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Bryce Canyon ET Queen’s Garden X2074
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Detail of the back side of the ET hoodoo (the side opposite the slope),
backlit and glowing against the brilliant blue sky at mid-morning in June.

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Bryce Canyon Gulliver’s Castle Queen’s Garden 1840
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One of the formations named in the early days of Bryce Canyon, Gulliver’s Castle was
a featured postcard scene used to advertise the canyon when the Queen’s Garden Trail
was constructed in the 1920s, allowing descent to the floor to see the hoodoos from below.

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Bryce Canyon Gulliver’s Castle
Queen’s Garden 1842

(348 KB)

These shots of Gulliver’s Castle and the Queen’s Garden Trail below were taken at mid-morning in late September.

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Bryce Canyon Gulliver’s Castle
Queen’s Garden 1843

(353 KB)

The Gulliver’s Castle formation stands high against a brilliant blue Utah sky, halfway down the Queen’s Garden Trail.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

PhotoshelterGallerySection


Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 1847
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Hoodoos in the Queen’s Garden, vignetted in the arch of the first of the two tunnels
which were carved through the red-orange rock fins that would otherwise block the trail.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5326
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The first of the two arched tunnels which pierce the fins on the Queen’s Garden Trail. These were carved through the fins when the trail was constructed in the 1920s.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5329
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The view through the first tunnel from the entrance. I took three shots of this scene: one without people, the image above, and a shot with the two hikers staring at the hoodoos in awe.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5331
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The downhill side of the first arched tunnel on the Queen’s Garden Trail, with the hill covered in snow in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch X1979
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The downhill side of the first arched tunnel on the Queen’s Garden Trail, taken in the early morning in June.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5342
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A closeup view of the second arched tunnel (the Bristlecone Tunnel)
on the Queen’s Garden Trail, illuminated by the late afternoon sun in Winter.

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5617
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The Bristlecone Tunnel passes through a shallower and shorter fin into the Queen’s Court area.
 The Bristlecone Pine skeleton stands at left. This shot was taken at mid-morning in August, and is
one of several shots taken of this arched tunnel (the arches were a popular subject for students).

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Bryce Canyon Queen’s Garden Arch 5340
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This shot of the Bristlecone Tunnel taken in the late afternoon in Winter focuses primarily
on the Bristlecone Pine skeleton itself. The backlit tunnel arch glows in the late afternoon light.

There are 14 other images of the tunnel arches available in summer and winter.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5605
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A spectacular set of hoodoos and fins halfway down the Queen’s Garden Trail taken at mid-morning in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1849
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A tighter composition of the group of hoodoos and fins on the left, taken a half hour later in the morning in late September.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5604
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A Juniper and two Pinyon Pines in an alcove in the Queen’s Garden wall, taken in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1851
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A wide angle shot taken directly up the Queen’s Garden hoodoo wall at mid-morning in late September.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1854
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Another wide angle shot taken even more steeply up the imposing Queen’s Garden hoodoo wall.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1850
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Balanced rocks near the top of the Queen’s Garden Trail below Sunrise Point in September.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1852
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A wider shot of the balanced rocks near the top of the Queen’s Garden Trail below Sunrise Point.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 6709
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Yet another shot of the balanced rocks near the top of the Queen’s Garden Trail, this one taken in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5622
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The group of hoodoos and fins below Sunrise Point,  from the base of the trail looking towards the trailhead.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5625
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Individual hoodoos stand before a huge monolithic hoodoo
formation at the base of the Queen’s Garden trail, taken in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1867
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A spectacular group of Queen’s Garden hoodoos and fins at mid-morning in late September.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1868
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Detail of the hoodoos in the Queen’s Garden wall on the right side of the previous image.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5345
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A wider shot of the same area of the Queen’s Garden wall, mid-afternoon in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 1869
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The prominent hoodoo-capped fin at the left of the formation taken in September from further
 down the trail, placing the large square formation behind the fin for compositional purposes.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden X2066
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The prominent fin at the end of the Queen’s Garden wall, taken at mid-morning in June from further down the trail.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5361
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The prominent fin at the end of the Queen’s Garden wall, taken in the late afternoon in December.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5615
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Hoodoos at the bottom of the trail down from Sunrise Point, taken at mid-morning in August.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 6731
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A sprinkling of trees in front of a massive hoodoo formation at the base of the Queen’s Garden wall, mid-morning in August.

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Bryce Canyon Dead Tree Queen’s Garden 5323
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The dead Limber Pine tree just beyond ET, with iridescent hoodoos beside the snow-encrusted trail in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Dead Tree in Winter 5399
(642 KB)

A late-afternoon 85mm shot of the same Limber Pine skeleton in late December.
This tree was a popular subject for many of the students I trained in Bryce Canyon.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 5378
(562 KB)

An ancient Bristlecone Pine stands on the slope below a massive hoodoo
formation on the Queen’s Garden Trail, taken in the late afternoon in December.

Great Basin Bristlecone Pines grow slowly, at high elevations near the tree line.
Some Bristlecone Pines are nearly 5000 years old, and they are the oldest single
living organisms on Earth (some clonal colonies such as the Pando Aspen grove
and the King’ Lomatia are as old as 50,000 to 80,000 years, although individual
plants of the colony are far younger). The oldest Bristlecone Pine (Prometheus),
4862 years old by ring count, was cut down by a research student in 1964. The
oldest living Bristlecone (4842 years) is Methuselah in the White Mountains.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos Queen’s Garden 6726
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Hoodoos at the end of a fin in the Queen’s Garden wall at mid-morning in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Rearing Horse Queen’s Garden 5380
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The Rearing Horse hoodoo beside two balanced rocks in the Queen’s Garden in December.

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Bryce Canyon Rearing Horse Queen’s Garden 5384
(415 KB)

A detail shot of the Rearing Horse hoodoo, glowing in front of a brilliant blue sky in late afternoon in August.

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Bryce Canyon Rearing Horse Queen’s Garden X1980
(378 KB)

A detail shot of the Rearing Horse hoodoo, side-lit in the early morning just after sunrise in June.

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Bryce Canyon Rearing Horse Queen’s Garden X2071
(379 KB)

A detail shot of the Rearing Horse hoodoo, evenly lit at mid-morning in June.

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Bryce Canyon Hoodoos at Sunset X1904c
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The hoodoo formation for which the Queen’s Garden area was named. The hoodoo
at left resembles a famous 1887 Bassano portrait of Queen Victoria, and is called
the Queen Victoria Hoodoo. This image (the XL version) is a detail crop from the
larger SXL image which shows the formation in the context of the surrounding
hoodoos, taken with a telephoto lens from Sunset Point at sunset in June.

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Bryce Canyon Queen Victoria Hoodoo 5351c
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A detail crop of the Queen Victoria hoodoo taken from the
Queen’s Garden Trail on a clear cold afternoon in late December.

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Bryce Canyon Queen Victoria Hoodoo 5358
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The Queen Victoria hoodoo formation, taken at mid-afternoon in December.

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Bryce Canyon Queen Victoria Hoodoo 6727
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A detail shot of the Queen Victoria hoodoo, glowing in front of a brilliant blue sky at mid-morning in late August.

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Bryce Canyon Queen Victoria Hoodoo X1995
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An 85mm profile portrait of the Queen Victoria hoodoo taken early on a June morning, just after sunrise.

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Bryce Canyon Queen Victoria Hoodoo X1994
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A 135mm profile portrait of the Queen Victoria hoodoo in the early morning in June.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.

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Direct Link to the Queen’s Garden Trail Gallery:

Queen's Garden Trail

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