If I Were Going...: Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Scott loves night sky photography, so he decided we needed to take a quick trip to Utah to try to nab some clear skies and stars. OK by me! It turned out to be a wonderful trip with beautiful weather, no crowds and – thank goodness – great night skies.

One reason we went

We set out for just a few days: two in Bryce Canyon National Park and one in Capitol Reef National Park.

Left, Bryce; Right, Capitol Reef

We drove west, including a short stint on I-70, where Colorado’s green beauty is replaced with some stark – but magnificent – Utah topography.

Beauty right off the highway

Then, we wound south through some farmland that was pretty, but apparently not pretty enough for us to stop and take photos.

I have been to both Parks (and the connecting Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument) before, so we covered no new ground (except a stop at Goblin Valley State Park on the way home).

CW: Capitol Reef, Bryce, Goblin Valley, Grand Staircase-Escalante

So, I assumed I already had blogs about everything. I was surprised that I couldn’t find one devoted to Bryce Canyon! So, here we go …

About Bryce Canyon

One of Utah’s five National Parks, Bryce Canyon is located in southwestern Utah and, despite its name, isn’t really focused on a canyon. Rather, its primary feature (and, thus, its reason for National Park status), is a collection of giant natural amphitheaters filled with hoodoos.

Such an interesting place

The red-, orange- and white-colored rocks provide spectacular views, especially when the sun is low on the horizon.

Reflecting light makes the spires of rocks look as if they are glowing from within

Bryce 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, which made it a bit cooler than one might expect for August.

We experienced nice temperatures, but elevation made the mid-day sun brutal

We also had very little rain – just one brief, but hard, shower.

Storms make the sky beautiful

This was lucky, because while we were at Bryce, both Zion and Arches National Parks experienced some pretty serious flooding, including four flood-related fatalities at Zion.

A rescue worker in Zion; Photo: NBC

We could have easily decided to go to either one of those Parks instead.

Good choice! Photo: Scott Stevens

We chose Bryce because we hoped it would be less crowded (it receives about 2.7 million visitors a year, compared to Zion’s 4.4), which turned out to be correct.

Oh, plus it’s gorgeous.

And, not too far away.

The area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area around Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a National Monument in 1923 and was redesignated as a National Park in 1928. Long and narrow, it covers 56 square miles and has one main road that travels down its spine with drop-offs on either side.

The Park is on the Colorado Plateau and straddles the southeastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau west of the Paunsaugunt Faults (Paunsaugunt is Paiute for "home of the Beaver"). The road is on the plateau and looks over the edge toward a valley containing the fault and the Paria River just beyond it (Paria is Paiute for "muddy or Elk water"). The edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau bounds the opposite side of the valley.

Bryce's road and overlooks are on the plateau

One reason Bryce isn’t technically a canyon is that it was formed by “headward erosion,” which occurs when a river erodes in an upstream direction, lengthening the river valley. This is different from downcutting, or vertical erosion, which occurs as a river erodes downwards, deepening the river channel and making a canyon.

This erosion created a series of amphitheaters filled with delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos that are up to 200 feet high.

Hoodoos at sunrise

The largest is Bryce Amphitheater, which is 12 miles long, three miles wide and 800 feet deep.

Bryce Amphitheater

Rainbow Point, the highest part of the park at 9,105 feet, is at the end of the 18-mile scenic drive.

Rainbow Point

Little is known about early human habitation in the Bryce Canyon area, but archaeological surveys show that people have been in the area for at least 10,000 years. Paiutes arrived in the mid-12th century. They believed that hoodoos were the "Legend People" whom the Trickster Coyote turned to stone. They called the hoodoos “Anka-ku-was-a-wits,” which is Paiute for "red painted faces."

Some do look like faces -- or animals

The first major scientific expedition to the area was led by U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell in 1872, after the Mormons had already started to move into the area. You may remember Powell from his exploration of the Grand Canyon.

Bryce said it was a "helluva place to lose a cow"

Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce and his wife Mary were sent by the church because they thought his carpentry skills would be useful to new settlers in the area. The Bryce family chose to live right below Bryce Amphitheater where he grazed cattle.

Bryce built a road to the plateau to retrieve firewood and timber, and a canal to irrigate his crops and water his animals. Interestingly, we saw a cow grazing right off the road in Bryce Canyon. Where it came from and how it got there, we do not know. Maybe it's descended from one of Bryce's lost cows.

A combination of drought, overgrazing and flooding eventually drove the remaining Paiutes from the area and prompted the settlers to attempt construction of a water diversion channel from the Sevier River drainage. When that effort failed, most of the settlers, including the Bryce family, left the area. A few remaining settlers dug (by hand!) a 10-mile ditch from the Sevier's east fork into Tropic Valley.

The Tropic Ditch; Photo: Bryce Pioneer Village

In the early 1900s, the Union Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads started promoting the scenic beauty of the area.

Union Pacific promotional postcard

However, poor access to the remote area and lack of accommodations kept visitation to a bare minimum. After some modest lodging was built and touring services were established, people started to visit. By the early 1920s, the Union Pacific Railroad became interested in expanding rail service into southwestern Utah to accommodate more tourists.

At the same time, conservationists became alarmed by the damage overgrazing, logging and unregulated visitation were having on the fragile features of Bryce Canyon.

Delicate natural features

A movement to have the area protected was soon started and National Park Service Director Stephen Mather responded by proposing that Bryce Canyon be made into a State Park.

Harding at Yellowstone; Photo: Yellowstone Insider

The governor of Utah and the Utah State Legislature, however, lobbied for national protection. Mather relented and sent a recommendation to President Warren G. Harding, who, on June 8, 1923, declared Bryce Canyon a National Monument. A President can designate a National Monument; Congress must vote on National Parks.

A road was built the same year on the plateau to provide easy access to outlooks over the amphitheaters. From 1924 to 1925, Bryce Canyon Lodge was built from local timber and stone. We stayed at the Lodge, but in a newer unit, the Sunset Building. Our room was pleasant, with a nice patio. Either our upstairs neighbors moved all the furniture two or three times or the Lodges' floors amplify sound.

Our hotel and room; Photos: Bryce Canyon Lodge

We ate in the Lodge's dining room, which was offering only a buffet. The food selection was sparse, the meat overcooked and tough and nothing was hot.

You are better off to eat in town (Bryce Canyon City, formerly known as Ruby’s Inn) or, even better, to picnic. We had one breakfast (also a buffet) at Ruby’s, but enjoyed our own food the rest of the time.

Ruby's comprises most of the town with a hotel, campground, store and restaurant.

After Bryce became a National Park, it gained more land in 1931 and 1942. Rim Road, the scenic drive that is still used today, was completed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Administration of the Park was conducted from neighboring Zion National Park until 1956, when Bryce got its own superintendent. Responding to increased visitation and traffic congestion, the National Park Service implemented a voluntary, summer-only, in-park shuttle system in June 2000. It was running, but we didn’t use it. The Park was virtually empty, so parking and driving was never a problem.

The only jams were caused by fawns

Geology

So, how did all these hoodoos form?

First, sandstone and shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway.

Hoodoos

Then, the more colorful deposits of the Claron Formation were laid down by a system of cool streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago.

Additional sediment types were laid down as the lakes' depths fluctuated and as the shoreline and river deltas shifted.

Several other formations were also created but were mostly eroded away following two major periods of uplift.

Inspiration Point; Photo: Scott Stevens

One uplift period about 50 to 70 million years ago built the Rocky Mountains and closed the Seaway.

The Colorado Plateaus were again uplifted 16 million years ago and were segmented into different plateaus, each separated from its neighbors by faults and each having its own uplift rate, creating different elevations.

The soft Pink Cliffs of the Claron Formation were eroded to form freestanding hoodoos …

Colorful hoodoos

… while the more resistant White Cliffs formed monoliths …

Looks like a raised fist

Also created were arches and natural bridges …

Natural Bridge

… walls …

Forming arches create a heart in the wall

… and windows …

There are lots of window throughout the Park

Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily eroded stone that protects the column from the elements.

Spires sporting caprock "hats"

Bryce Canyon has one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos of any place on Earth.

The formations exposed in the Park are part of the Grand Staircase (more about that in a later post). The oldest members of this super sequence of rock units are exposed in the Grand Canyon, the intermediate ones in Zion National Park and the youngest parts are laid bare in Bryce Canyon area.

Oldest, older, old

Flora and Fauna

More than 400 native plant species live in the Park, which has three life zones based on elevation.

Lots of different trees

The lowest areas of the park are dominated by dwarf forests of pinyon pine and juniper with manzanita, serviceberry and antelope bitterbrush in between.

Aspen, cottonwood, water birch and willow grow along streams. Ponderosa pine forests cover the mid-elevations with blue spruce and Douglas fir in water-rich areas and manzanita and bitterbrush as underbrush.

Douglas fir and white fir, along with aspen and Engelmann spruce, make up the forests on the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

The harshest areas have limber pine and ancient Great Basin bristlecone pine, some more than 1,600 years old, holding on. There are some rather significant burn areas from a forest fire in 2018.

Some places can't support much vegetation

The forests and meadows of Bryce Canyon provide the habitat to support diverse animal life, but all we saw were Utah Prairie Dogs (a threatened species that was reintroduced to the Park for conservation) …

The largest protected population of Utah Prairie Dogs is in the Park

Mule Deer …

We saw lots of fawns

Chipmunks …

Uinta Chipmunk

Lizards …

A young and an adult Common Sagebrush Lizard

Elk and Pronghorn, which have been reintroduced nearby, sometimes venture into the Park. We saw, but didn’t photograph, one Pronghorn (usually we see more).

I didn’t expect to see many birds and certainly not new birds. I got very excited when I was able to photograph a Townsend’s Warbler, thinking it was a lifer. It turns out it wasn’t a new bird, just one I didn’t have a photo of.

Female Townsend's Warbler

So, that was good.

It was exciting to think I had a lifer

I looked for California Condors, but didn’t see any. We were surprised to see three Peregrine Falcons cruising the amphitheaters ...

I heard them calling before I saw them

We also saw a couple of other raptors …

Red-tailed Hawks

… and a variety of birds, including Green-tailed Towhees …

This one visited our picnic table

… some Yellow-rumped Warblers …

A female Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler

... a young Townsend’s Solitaire, a couple of Red-shafted Northern Flickers and lots of Steller’s Jays …

Many common birds

And, we saw lots and lots of grasshoppers, cicadas and locusts …

Red-winged Grasshopper

But, generally, this trip was all about the scenery …

Such a vista

… from early morning …

Scott taking some sunrise shots

… to late at night …

Yes, we got some good Milky Way and Big Dipper shots

Our Visit

We didn’t do a whole lot while at Bryce, except to take in (and photograph) the beautiful scenery at the main part of the park …

Bryce Canyon amphitheaters

But, we did take some time out to visit Red Canyon, which is in the Dixie National Forest right outside Bryce. It’s a spectacularly beautiful place.

Said to be “the most photographed place in Utah” (with Delicate Arch, maybe not)

One of the things that makes it a bit different than Bryce is that the sandstone is a more brilliant red than Bryce and, with a thick forest around it, the contrast with the green trees pumps it up even more.