Yesterday we took a drive to Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, a 2.5-hour trip from where I’m staying in Ivins, Utah. Bryce is located where the red pin is in this Wikipedia map:
It turns out that Bryce is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in America—indeed, anywhere on Earth. To me, its splendor, exemplified by the “amphitheaters” that contain the red geological spires known as hoodos, is unparalleled. I’ll show some photos below. First, a few words from Wikipedia:
The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rock. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400 to 2,700 m).
And the geology, which explains these bizarre formations:
The Bryce Canyon area experienced soil deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era. The ancient depositional environment varied. Dakota Sandstone and Tropic Shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway (outcrops of these rocks are found just outside park borders).
The Laramide orogeny affected the entire western part of what would become North America starting about 70 million to 50 MYA. This event helped to build the Rocky Mountains and in the process closed the Cretaceous Seaway. The Straight Cliffs, Wahweap, and Kaiparowits formations were victims of this uplift. The Colorado Plateaus rose 16 MYA and were segmented into plateaus, separated by faults and each having its own uplift rate.
This uplift created vertical joints, which over time preferentially eroded. The soft Pink Cliffs of the Claron Formation eroded to form freestanding hoodoo pinnacles in badlands, while the more resistant White Cliffs formed monoliths The brown, pink, and red colors are from hematite (iron oxide; Fe2O3); the yellows from limonite (FeO(OH)·nH2O); and the purples are from pyrolusite (MnO2).
So we have a sedimentary sandstone formation that of course formed the seabed, and, under the pressure of colliding tectonic plates (I’m dong the best I can here), produced a huge uplift of the seabed, with Bryce being part of a huge sandstone cliff. Thrust above the ground, the cliff was subject to erosion as well as weathering as frost and ice invaded the cracks in the soil. That erosion of softer bits, as well as the cracking, created structures like these. These are “mini-hoodoos” that you see before you enter the Park itself:
The area is called “Dixie” because there was a period during which settlers tried to grow cotton in the area. This endeavor ultimately failed, probably because of extreme dryness and lack of water. They haven’t yet purged the name “Dixie” from many institutions and parks, but that will happen. There is even a “Dixie Technical College.”
These are just small previews of the Big Show that is Bryce Canyon:
Entering the park, you’re warned to stay away from prairie dogs (cute rodents in the genus Cynomys) who build extensive underground tunnel systems. Their fleas carry the bacterium the causes bubonic plague, which persists at a low level in the U.S (about nine cases a year in the past couple decades). Now that we have antibiotics, getting plague is no longer the death sentence it was in the Middle Ages.
The glories of the park are the series of hoodoo-containing ampitheaters, which you can see from above by climbing up a short path. They are breathtaking:
These spires are huge, not just small excrescences:
A panorama: be sure to click to enlarge the photo:
The day was bloody cold, with snow on the ground during much of the two-hour drive and some near white-outs. But the weather cleared sufficiently when we got to the Park so that photography was good, in muted light. Here’s my friend Phil Ward standing on the edge of the cliff, trying not to slip and fall into the canyon.
. . . and Professor Ceiling Cat in the same place: a vanity photo
More of the Canyon. It is much smaller than Zion but more breathtaking. You can pretty much take in the whole thing by climbing to one of the lookout points (this one was about 8,000 feet high, so you get out of breath hiking up):
Another panorama: click to enlarge:
After we froze our ears, hands, and noses (there was a stiff wind up there, and the temperature was below freezing), we parked the car overlooking some scenery and had a healthy Phil Ward-ian lunch (turkey breast and cream cheese on walnut bread, along with a ginger drink, a banana, and an apple). Then we repaired to the visitor center, which had good explanations and diagrams of how the park was formed. There were also relics from the Native Americans who lived in this area as well as the Mormon settlers. Here is a water jug from the late 1800s made of resin-coated wood:
There were lots of Bryce-related geegaws for sale in the gift ship, and I had a bit of fun with two pack rat puppets (rodents of the genus Neotoma).
Then it was time for the long drive home, and once again we had to go through snow and rain. But we were fortunate that the weather in the Park was good when we were there, and we could truly say this:
And when we got home, one of the people who co-owns the beautiful house where I’m staying served us raw oysters, grilled oysters, grilled burgers, and then two beautiful grilled ribeye steaks:
And the sun will come out tomorrow (in fact, today). The view from the house where I’m staying:
If you’re in southern Utah, you must visit both Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. But if you can visit only one, it must be Bryce. Truly, I’ve traveled a lot of this planet, and seen some beautiful places, but Bryce is surely among the top ten. (Others include Mt. Everest from Kala Pattar, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal under a full moon, and almost any part of Antarctica, as well as the giant sequoias of California.)
Feel free to list below the most beautiful places you’ve seen! This might help me amend my bucket list.
I didn’t expect a breathtaking adventurelogue to materialize from a trip to “Vegas”, as they say – wonderfully surprising!
Again, I sense being drawn into my tiny screen…
Me too. You said that very well!
Hey, thanks – cheers!
[ deep bow ]
Complete agreement. Bryce is a must-see place. But it is cold! We were there in late April last year and there was still snow blocking some of the higher locations.
I just read that the lowest point in Bryce Canyon NP is 6600+ feet. No wonder it’s cold in fall and spring!
Of the incredibly wonderful places on the planet, three that I have been lucky to see are Machu Picchu, Delphi, and the West Norway UNESCO World Heritage site. I spent six summers there, which made it possible to see places on and around the Storfjord from many angles in different conditions. Geirangerfjord is the most well known part of the area, but it is an amazingly beautiful part of the world.
It’s hard to top those parks for natural splendor and beauty. But the good ‘ol Grand Canyon is definitely up there somewhere. It’s so vast that I cannot even get my head around what I’m seeing. Then there are the redwoods and sequoias in California.
A part that makes these visits so pleasurable is that they are international attractions, so when visiting you overhear many different languages.
One visit that moved me deeply was Ellis Island, with its museum that does an excellent job at teaching visitors the history of immigration into the U.S., controversies and all. There too one is surrounded by people from all over the world.
I forgot the Grand Canyon!
I’ve long thought that if the people from the period of that canteen or earlier were teleported into the present, one of the things they’d be most astonished over would be the ubiquity of liquid drinks in containers that everyone just throws away after one use.
I remember when milk was sold in reusable glass bottles. Same with soft drinks.
It does seem more environmentally sound.
Thanks for these pics and commentary, though I know that the photos cannot convey the true grandeur you witnessed in-person. There is just so much amazing natural stuff to see, just here in the U.S. I have come to think that every child should have a year of geology/earth/space science following chemistry and preceding life sciences. The time scales of geology are eye-watering..there is an area here in Virginia along the Appalachian (hiking) Trail called the Devils Marble Yard, a huge boulder field created when hundreds of millions if years ago an ancient ocean sand beach was covered over by sediments that compressed the sand into sandstone, that was later surfaced by geologic forces and finally broken up most recently (tens of thousands of years) by alternate freezing and thawing during the last ice age.
Also, geologist Phil Prince has made several short you tube videos explaining the geology that led to the recent disastrous river flooding from Tropical Storm Helene in the mountains of western North Carolina and Virginia. Url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDRx0J8yRMM.
Finally, I am amazed by the variation in temperature and availability of oxygen with altitude. I recall hiking the pacific crest trail just outside Yosemite in july/august years ago and trekking through snowfields at many places above 8,000ft….and very cold lake water for morning baths!
“Devils Marble Yard”
Oh, I GOTTA see that!!
In James River Face wilderness area near Natural Bridge. Boulders of all sizes. See url https://lexingtonvirginia.com/articles/devils-marbleyard
Thank you for the link; Phil Prince has a new fan.
So beautiful. I’ve never gotten out West to see this.
Fantastic. I grew up loving geology, but I don’t know how. After all, I grew up in the forested Northeast, where rocks are exposed only in road cuts. It was only when I went out west to geological field camp as a college student, that I was finally able to see all those things that they talk about in textbooks: folds, faults, igneous intrusives, cap rocks, joints, and all the rest. Because of the arid climate and lack of vegetation, the geology was all laid out in front of us like a fine meal—sort of like those ribeyes that you describe.
One place on my bucket list is a few hours outside of Salt Lack City in Utah – U-DIG Fossils Quarry. Trilobite fossils are a specialty. (There may be better quarries around there, for all I know, but this is the one I know about)
Years ago, I bought a trilobite fossil from the Harvard Natural History museum that was collected in Millard Co., Utah, according to the label. It dates back to 500 million years. When I hold the fossil, I’m just awestruck by the fact that these animals lived a half a billion years ago.
I got Orthoceras and Ammonite there, but they’re from Morocco.
Thank you for sharing this phenomenal sight! It is incredible!
Wow. Fantastic. I never knew about that place, such beauty. I’m remiss in travel to the impressive left half of our country, particularly the NM, NV, AZ areas.
On bucket lists: I can say from my own experience, and as a long term reader of WEIT, I think your Japan file is pretty thin. I think you’d be surprised by the beauty there. There’s more natural beauty than people think (esp in Hokkaido), the cultural stuff (think rock gardens, other gardens, temples, etc better than anywhere) and the human, built environment of architecture, cities, and how the humans interact with the same.
Living there as a young man I’d have said the language barrier made it tough for non-Japanese speakers – the place wasn’t set up for international tourists – but over the years and visits, and more mass tourism, it is an easier trip now. Just my two cents/yen.
best, and keep up the excellent travelogue.
D.A.
NYC
I fully agree about the beauty of Bryce Canyon. After finishing the experimental work for my PhD at SLAC these many years ago I and my fellow student drove from Palo Alto to Kings Canyon national park, Las Vegas, Zion national park, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. Bryce Canyon is the most spectacular and beautiful place I’ve seen in such a small area. Although for me, even more awe-inspiring was the Grand Canyon – we hiked to the bottom and back, and the scale of it, and the constant change of light and colour and shadow, remain vivid in my mind nearly 50 years later.
Put Iceland on your bucket list.
Your photos of Bryce Canyon are incredible. There must have been some recent rain for the colors to burst out like that. At the bottom of the amphitheaters flows the Paria River. It cuts through the canyon country to Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River and the beginning of the Grand Canyon.
File this under “Timing is everything.” Zion tops my list between it and Bryce, but my time at Bryce was daytime and my time in Zion was after midnight under a full moon. I was driving from Durango, CO to L.A. and travelled through Zion to see it at night. I was dumbstruck with awe.
Beautiful photos. I have traveled in Utah and thought it was breathtaking with the formations that look like abandoned ancient civilizations. My experience of beautiful nature is my travels through the Great American West. Can’t choose one. Do especially love the Tetons, Grand Canyon and Mt Rainier. Bodies of water and mountainous locations seem to make the list, yet the Sonoran Desert is one of my favorite beautiful places.
PS- you two got as close to the edge of the cliff as I could bear! Truly enjoyed seeing you being goofy and playful with the puppets.
The viewing of all public places of great beauty in the United States being significantly enhanced after the first week of September and before the last week of May.
I have been to Zion but not to Bryce, now definitely on my do list. Enjoyed your photos very much, Jerry.
I think you would like Chiricahua National Monument in SE Arizona, Cochise County. Its many hoodoos and balancing rocks are eroded from welded tuff deposited by massive volcanism millions of years ago. Four biomes converge in this ‘sky island’. Much biodiversity and lots of history as well in nearby Fort Bowie. This was Apache country. I saw coatimundi here for the first time!
I’ve seen Bryce Canyon and it’s gorgeous. Great photos.
Fantastic vistas, but geological explanations may be more mundane. Observe that at the top of each sandstone spire there sits a rock, or large stone. What seems to have happened is that during heavy rains the stones act like an umbrella protecting the materials beneath from erosion, whereas adjacent areas lacking such protection were washed away. On a very much smaller, less colourful scale, we have similar in parts of New Zealand.
Your pictures have left me longing for Utah (as when I lived there, I longed for a glimpse of the ocean). In Utah, Arches NP is every bit as magical as Bryce, albeit for arches, rather than hoodoos and in the Moab area, take a drive east on Rt. 128 which runs right along the edge of the Colorado river. If you’re traveling between 12 May and 22 Oct., go south from Moab, take a brief (12 mi. each way) detour to see Newspaper Rock a bit N. of Monticello. Then go on to Mesa Verde NP across the border into CO. The cliff dwellings are another sort of magical. You need to book tour tickets well in advance on line (they suggest at least 2 weeks).
I’m shocked that the Tetons have only gotten one mention and Yosemite and Yellowstone have not been lauded. If I could only visit one NP, it would be Yellowstone, for the combination of unique geology and wildlife it can’t be topped (and the Tetons are right next door and completely different). I’m always sad that I never got my parents there.
As mentioned several times above – shoulder seasons are a must.
Agree with Machu Picchu (and a visit to Sacsayhuaman while in the area). I also think Tikal in Guatemala is spectacular.
Yes! Utah 128 east from Moab is magic. Glad you mentioned it.
I haven’t yet been to Yosemite. And I’ve only driven through Yellowstone.
Favorite NP in Urah:Canyonlands by far.
South rim of Grand Canyon equally awe-inspiring.
Also Dead Horse State Park near Moab. Thelma and Louise was filmed there as a stand-in for the Grand Canyon.
Arches NP is gorgeous, but over-crowded, especially with RVs.
Interesting that the water jug has a pointed bottom rather than a flat bottom, much like a Greek amphora. I’ve read that amphorae were pointed because it made them move around less during ship voyages. I never found this very clear or convincing. I wonder why an American Indian water jug would be pointed.
I was in Santa Fe in early October. We drove into the mountains and walked among the golden aspens, just as the sun was setting in a deep blue sky. That was magical, as magical as anything I have seen.
Lucky you! Great meals and a great location.
I love southern Utah. That said, Bryce is one of the few places in Utah that I haven’t seen! Must get there.
Most beautiful places:
Jasper and Banff national parks
The Himalaya in Nepal (I haven’t yet been to the Andes)
The Fjordlands of Norway
Certain spots in southern Utah that I’m sworn to not reveal
North Cascades National Park
The Coast Redwood groves of northern California
The south island of New Zealand
The gorge of the Rogue River in Oregon
Denali in Alaska
Mount Kenya
Provence
Tuscany
Liguria
Since 1983, I’ve maintained that Bryce is the most beautiful vista I have seen. Others in my top 10 are Green River Canyon, full moon rising through Delicate Arch, coral reef snorkelling (Great Barrier, Ningaloo, Samoa, Vanuatu), Pont du Gard, Kepler Track, and karri/kauri/podocarp/redwood forest.
To bad you couldn’t have sliced off some time to visit The Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park.
A local recommended the park as a get away day trip from Zion and Bryce.
Close to both parks south, on the Arizona/Utah border. Witnessing what the Venturi effect has accomplished over 15000 yrs amazing. John Kiwala. Polish. South Hackensack, NJ
Jiuzhaigou national park in Sichuan is the most beautiful place I’ve seen, even in winter, when I saw it, without the lush summer flowers and greenery in tourist advertisements, though also without mega crowds and megaphone armed tourist guides.
Otherwise, lots of places in NZ’s South Island. The glacier below our plane landing at Mt Cook airport was as close as I’ve ever been to an uplifting spiritual experience.
I’m a small-government libertarian (that phrase reads much differently without the hyphen), but I think our National Park system is outstanding and a great use of taxpayer dollars. Bryce and the other western parks are my favorites. Thanks for the pics!
Put Namibia in your bucket list. The red dunes and the dessert by the sea.
Absolutely spectacular! Thank you very much for sharing!