Bryce Canyon

The hiking is better and more varied at Zion, but everyone must visit Bryce.  This strange landscape has to be seen to be believed--the photos just don't do it justice.  The rock formations, called hoodoos, are like no where else.  It's a toss up what is more amazing: looking down on Bryce Amphitheater at sunrise, an entire canyone filled with these structures, or hiking down among them. 

We camped at Bryce. It's great being able to get to the overlooks at sunrise, but it was C-O-L-D  --in the 30's at night, as the park is at 8000 to 9000 feet elevation. Probably the stars were beautiful at night. But we weren't willing to get out of warm sleeping bags to find out.



Looking down on the hoodoos. In the photo below, some of the formations almost appear to be illuminated within by the early morning light.


  
Bryce Canyon Photos

What Causes Hoodoos?


Ice is the most efficient form of erosion. The Paunsaugunt Plateau above Bryce Canyon gets approximately 100 inches of snowfall each year, and about 200 days of freeze and thaw. Snow melts and runs into the joints between the rocks, and then freezes at night. When the water freezes it expands the space between thr rocks, and the resulting ice wedges grow as more wather leaks into the increasing joints between the rocks, finally breaking the rock. This process is called frost wedging. That, in combination with the sandstone layers of this area, has created these otherworldy formations.

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