A land of delicately carved rock spires in sunset shades, Bryce Canyon was an out-of-this-world start to my southwest US national park hopping. The park is made up of a series of amphitheatres along the edge of a plateau, filled with thousands of rock formations called hoodoos. They’re formed when the limestone is eroded by wind, frost and rain, shaping it into in assortment of canyons, fins, arches and spires. Iron oxide in the rock gives it a vivid red, orange or yellows tint. Well that’s the science, but looking at the twisted shapes you can see why the early Paiute Indians thought the hoodoos were people who’d been frozen into rock by an evil spirit. The canyon gets its name from Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon pioneer and shipbuilder who settled in the valley in 1870. He built roads and started off the settlement here, but was notoriously uneffusive about his spectacular home, describing it as “a hell of a place to lose a cow”.

The entrance into the National Park
The main way to explore Bryce Canyon is from a series of overlooks and trails along the top of the rim. On a clear day you can see over 150 miles because of the high altitude and clear air up here. You can feel the altitude in other ways too; the viewpoints are up at around 8000–9000 feet high, so even on a sunny mid-April day there were spots of snow among the rocks and out of the sun I was glad to have my fleece.
The viewpoints are strung out along a 18-mile scenic road which runs along the plateau rim. When you arrive into the park you get given a map and brochure with details of all the different stops and the trailheads for the hikes around the park, so you can plan your visit. We started off by following the road into the Bryce Amphitheater area, where the biggest concentration of viewpoints are.

The views from our first stop at Sunset Point
Our first stop was at Sunset and Sunrise Points. Despite not being there at the right time of day for either of them, my first views down into the canyon still took my breath away. From up here the hoodoos look like a maze of tightly packed pinnacles of rock below you. On a stunningly clear day the bright terracotta colours of the rocks popped out against the brilliant blue skies.
It almost doesn’t look real, like someone’s carved out these intricate patterns in the rock. This area’s called the Silent City, and you can almost picture a hidden civilisation living down there. A mile-long section of the Rim Trail links Sunrise and Sunset points and had some of my favourite views. The whole trail is 5.5 miles long and runs along the mostly flat rim of the canyon between Fairyland Point and Bryce Point.

Views from the Rim Trail between Sunset and Sunrise Points
After retracing our steps back to Sunset Point, we drove on to the next viewpoint at Inspiration Point. There are three different viewing levels here, perched on the edge of a cliff which drops off steeply. A few pine trees cling on desperately to the edge. Although it might look dry and barren there’s a lot of plant and animal life in the canyon. There lizards everywhere and squirrels, chipmunks and prairie dogs are pretty common, but you have to get very lucky to spot the canyon’s rare mountain lion.

Inspiration Point
Further on again is Bryce Point, with one of the most panoramic viewpoints from a platform overhanging the canyon. You can see for miles and totally lose all sense of scale – the hoodoos below look as tiny as ant hills though they can reach 200 feet high. At sunrise here the sun’s rays touch the tips of the hoodoos first, making them look like they’re on fire, before spreading down into the canyon. After Bryce Point and nearby Paria View you’ve reached the end of the Bryce Amphitheater. The landscape changes from pine to spruce forest south of here and the viewpoints get a lot more spread out.

Bryce Point
At the far end of the park is the highest viewpoint, Rainbow Point. At this end the views are much more open, and you can see for hundreds of miles across to the hills of the Kaibab Plateau where the North Rim of the Grand Canyon lies. You get a better idea of the geology here too. The area is called the Grand Staircase and you can see the different coloured rock that make up each ‘step’. Also at this end of the park is the arch at Natural Bridge and two towering hoodoos at Agua Canyon.

Far-reaching views from Rainbow Point
As well as the overlooks and viewpoints along the plateau, there are several hiking trails which take you into the canyon. Even though I’m not much of a hiker, I wanted to get in among the hoodoos and see them from a different perspective. So we headed back to Sunset Point to the start of the Navajo Loop Trail. A sandy path leads steeply downhill and we were soon absorbed into the Silent City. The trail’s only 1.5 miles long but has some steep patches and you’ll need to carry plenty of water. It’s worth the effort though as close up you can see the intricate detail of the patterns that erosion has left on the hoodoos.

Among the hoodoos on the Navajo Loop Trail, with Thor’s Hammer on the right
Patches of harder rock mean you get strange formations like the hammer shape of Thor’s Hammer. The colours are a lot more varied that they look from above too, with patches of purple and brown among the reds and yellows. The trail leads on past the towering limestone ‘skyscrapers’ of the narrow slot canyon named Wall Street. Down here you finally appreciate the huge scale of the hoodoos – some of the Wall Street towers can be up to 20 storeys high. It’s a magical landscape and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. You can’t help agree with Ebenezer – cow or no cow, Bryce Canyon is still one hell of a place.

Climbing back up the Navajo Loop Trail
The details
Bryce Canyon National Park is in southern Utah, near the small town of Tropic, about a 4.5-hour drive from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. Entry costs $30 per car (or $15 on foot/bike) and is valid for a week, or it’s free with a National Parks Pass. There’s a shuttle service around the park from late April to October, running every 10–20 minutes from 8am to 7pm (6pm in May and September) – it’s not compulsory but helps reduce congestion.
30 Comments
miasmisadventures
June 10, 2013 at 10:02 amI really enjoyed your blog, especially the photos. Now there’s yet another place on my ever growing list that I’m desperate to visit!
Lucy Dodsworth
June 10, 2013 at 11:24 amThanks, I took so many photos on this trip I’m still sorting through them a month later! There’s so much to see in the southwest, hope you get to make the trip out there soon.
Andrew Petcher
June 10, 2013 at 10:17 amMy favourite National Park in the USA! Thanks for the memory nudge.
Lucy Dodsworth
June 10, 2013 at 11:23 amOne of my favourites too, though I think it might be a tie with Canyonlands! By far the most photogenic though, those colours were just amazing.
Yaşar Norman
June 10, 2013 at 10:38 amReblogged this on yasarnorman.
Lucy Dodsworth
June 10, 2013 at 11:22 amThanks for reblogging!
LensTHERAPY
June 10, 2013 at 4:16 pmDefinitely a destination on my list!! Amazing pics.
Lucy Dodsworth
June 10, 2013 at 6:11 pmThanks, it’s a real photographer’s dream of a destination, so many interesting colours and details too as well as those huge panoramas.
Lauren @ Peaks and Passports
June 10, 2013 at 11:01 pmGorgeous photos Lucy! I must get to Bryce – it just looks so phenomenal and unique. Though I must beg to differ with you on one point… I’d consider you very UNlucky had you happened upon one of the park’s mountain lions – those guys don’t mess around!
Lucy Dodsworth
June 10, 2013 at 11:10 pmGood point – I’m imagining it from a nice safe distance or behind some bars somewhere but I imagine coming face to face with one in real life would be a very different experience!
livliveslife
June 10, 2013 at 11:41 pmGreat pictures! This place is definitely on my to-see bucket list!
Lucy Dodsworth
June 11, 2013 at 4:54 pmThanks, it’s a great region for a road trip, so much to see in a smallish area (an American style small area that is, it’s probably half the size of the UK!).
The Travelbunny
June 11, 2013 at 11:26 amAbsolutely stunning Lucy – I have to visit!
Lucy Dodsworth
June 11, 2013 at 4:55 pmHope you do Suzanne, the travel wish list is always a tough one to narrow down though isn’t it!
Does a US National Parks Pass save you money? | On the Luce
June 11, 2013 at 1:41 pm[…] route took in Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Zion, Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon National Parks. The total entry costs would have […]
restlessjo
June 11, 2013 at 10:03 pmIsn’t our planet endlessly amazing, Luce? I have a friend who hiked Bryce a couple of years ago and she was knocked out by it. Your photos are better. (of course!) 🙂
Lucy Dodsworth
June 11, 2013 at 11:53 pmYou’d hope I’d get some good shots with the amount I took! The USA photo backlog is still feeling like a bit of a mountain to climb a month after getting back. Does let me relive the trip a bit at a time though which is no bad thing!
Marisol@TravelingSolemates
June 14, 2013 at 9:57 pmHi Lucy, thanks for taking me on your hike. I’ve been wanting to visit Bryce. I thinking the hoodoos are very fascinating. Love the panoromic views. Lovely photos.
Lucy Dodsworth
June 18, 2013 at 2:05 pmThanks Marisol, the hoodoos really are unique, such strange patterns it’s hard to imagine they formed naturally.
smiller257
June 22, 2013 at 5:26 amGreat pictures, I have to see it in person sometime in the future!
Lucy Dodsworth
June 24, 2013 at 11:51 amHope you do – there are a lot of fantastic landscapes in that area but this was the biggest ‘wow’ moment for me.
Rick
June 27, 2013 at 9:43 pmOne of my favorite places.
Lucy Dodsworth
June 28, 2013 at 4:37 pmIt was one of my favourite road trip stops – so unusual it’s not like anywhere else I’ve ever seen.
Reviewed: My top southwest USA road trip stays | On the Luce
July 22, 2013 at 5:53 pm[…] in Utah is a teeny little town which is one of the closest places to stay for Bryce Canyon National Park. We stayed two nights in these cute little wooden cabins on the edge of town. […]
Canyonlands: Land of the giants | On the Luce
July 25, 2013 at 10:00 am[…] trip route that I knew the least about. I’d seen plenty of photos of Arches, the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon and Zion‘s red rocks, but what about Canyonlands? It gets less than half the number of […]
STEP 128 – Hike the Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon, Utah | thedepartureboard.com
August 25, 2013 at 9:55 am[…] A huge thanks to STEPPER Lucy Dodsworth for sharing this post. Be sure to see Lucy’s wonderful photo on her post The beauty of Bryce Canyon. […]
Matt Burns
February 5, 2018 at 1:17 pmBryce is such a cool park, and so different! We went there on a day trip from Zion to hike the fairyland trail while we were in Utah a few months ago. It’s surprising how completely different the two parks are given how close they are to each other.
Lucy
February 8, 2018 at 10:50 amThe diversity in that part of the country is just amazing – so many stunning landscapes to explore!
Brian Lueck
September 24, 2018 at 1:56 amGreat blog Lucy! We’re heading there October 20-30 visiting many of the canyons
Lucy
September 25, 2018 at 10:37 pmHope you have a great trip – I loved exploring that part of the world!