Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is the smallest of Utah’s five national parks, and the last I have been able to visit. It also appears to be the youngest geologically of the parks, at least at the level of its world-famous amphitheater.

Panorama of the Bryce Canyon amphitheater.

Bryce sits at the top of the sedimentary rock strata of southern Utah that is known as the “Grand Staircase”, a series of geologic steps stretching geographically from southern Utah to the Grand Canyon that expose hundreds of millions of years of geologic history. The grand staircase formed by tilting of the ground and erosion of these sedimentary layers. The beauty of the area in part is due to the different colors of the sedimentary layers.

Stratigraphic layers of the Grand Staircase in northern Arizona and southern Utah. Lower image by
National Park Service, public domain.

The amphitheater carved into the eastern side of Bryce Canyon was the impetus for the creation of the park nearly 100 years ago. It is a stunning collection of sandstone spires known as hoodoos. These reddish rocks are relatively young (of Cenozoic age) and are part of the Claron Formation, one of the youngest layers of rock in the park.

The hoodoos are packed tightly together in an arena just below a plateau at the park’s entrance. Their formation is fascinating and complicated, involving steps of crisscrossed ground fractures and differential erosion. Hoodoos are a type of geologic spire, unique because they vary in width from top to bottom due to different rates of erosion of the rock. At Bryce the hoodoos are mostly reddish in color (that indicates oxidized iron in the rock), but there are lovely bands of whitish rock too that decorate the amphitheater.

Hoodoos in the Bryce Canyon Amphitheater.

The other white that decorated the area in early May was snow – which was falling due to precipitation moving through Utah that week and the high elevation of the park. Snow fell on and off the afternoon I arrived at Bryce, sometimes in large flakes. The tops of hoodoos and other surfaces around the amphitheatre were left with a thin dusting of white that added vibrancy to the red rocks.

The Pink Cliffs with a light layer of spring snow.

That night I camped at the southern end of the park at about 8500 ft elevation. I drove to Rainbow Point (9115 ft), and then descended a few hundred feet over a mile and a half along an easy trail to a backpacking campsite at Yovimpa Pass. There was little doubt it was going to be a cold night, but I stayed dry during the hike and doubled up on clothes overnight, keeping me reasonably warm. About midnight I could hear the patter of snow on the tent, and I awoke to an inch or so of snow on the tent and forest floor in the morning.

Snow on my tent and borrowed bear canister in the morning.

Small waterfall and hoodoos at the northern
end of the park.

At such a high elevation, Bryce was well forested, mainly with pines near the amphitheater, and mixed conifer species at higher elevations, including firs. Rainbow Point also had a conifer species I have wanted to see for quite some time: the Bristlecone Pine! These ancient craggy botanical sentinels occurred in a population at the windy edge of the point. The Bristlecone Pine deserves its own post, so I’ll defer writing about it more for now.

Bryce was crowded and touristy (near the roads), but well worth a visit! My backcountry experience stood in contrast to the easily accessible areas of the park – there was not a soul in sight for my overnight trip to Yovimpa Pass – and I think a future backcountry trip through Bryce would be well worth it!

Reference

Morris TH, Ritter SM, Laycock DP. 2012. Geology Unfolded. An Illustrated Guide to the Geology of Utah’s National Parks. BYU Press.