The Maze Loop, Window Rock, and North View Trails, strangely enough, are neither listed in the park’s hiking guide nor signposted along the road. The trailhead is marked on google maps, but as there’s no phone reception in the park, it can be a little challenging to locate the trailhead near the West Entrance at Mile Marker 24.
You’ll probably save some time if you download the trail’s GPS files before you enter the park, which will help you locate the trailhead and small parking lot off Park Boulevard.

Once on the trail, however, trail signage at most major trail junctions is excellent and shows your location on a map in relation to other tracks in the immediate vicinity. Still, it helps to have the GPS files at hand throughout the hike because the Maze Loop certainly does justice to its name, and this hike combines three different trails, the Maze Loop, Window Rock, and North View trails (in that order) into a 12-kilometer loop (7.4 miles).

In this rocky labyrinth littered with large stone outcrops, massive boulders, and the park’s unique namesake trees and different species of cacti, every stretch of way looks much like the rest of the desert valley. After a few track junctions and twists and turns of the track, I was starting to feel a little lost and was glad to spot the next trail marker, rock cairn or branches placed on the desert floor pointing us in the right direction.

This trail offers a lovely introduction to magnificent Mojave Desert scenery just after you’ve entered the park and can easily be combined with other tracks in the area to make for a shorter or longer hike. There’s no restroom or water at the trailhead, but you can find both at the West Entrance, a 3-minute drive from the start of the track.