Bryce Canyon National Park

We visited Bryce twice on our trip. Dogs are only allowed on a path that overlooks the canyon. So, our first visit was in the evening after 2 other hikes with our friends earlier in the day. We stayed on the rim trail with the dogs. The next morning we started the next leg of our trip to Arizona with a morning visit to Bryce again. This time we left the dogs in the van and did a loop hike into the canyon.

The area around Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and was re-designated as a national park by Congress in 1928.

Bryce 'Amphitheater'?

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.

Hoodoos

Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views.

Click here for more info on hoodoos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_(geology)

Sun Backlighting the Rock Formations

Lauren at the Edge of the Canyon

Hoodoos and Trees

Limber Pine

There are more than 400 native plant species in the park. Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis) grow at or above the timberline from 5,000 to 12,000 feet. They are very slow growing and do not compete well with other conifers, so you will often find them growing in places that other trees cannot survive in - note the exposed roots hanging on to the rocky surface, a testament to the rate that Bryce Canyon is eroding to the west, approximately 2-4 feet every 100 years.
Limber pines are, as you might guess, very flexible, which is helpful when living in harsh windy conditions. The smaller limbs can actually be tied into knots - although you shouldn't do that.

Wade at the Edge of the Canyon

Native American Habitation

Little is known about early human habitation in the Bryce Canyon area. Archaeological surveys of Bryce Canyon National Park and the Paunsaugunt Plateau show that people have been in the area for at least 10,000 years. Basketmaker Anasazi artifacts several thousand years old have been found south of the park. Other artifacts from the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture (up to the mid-12th century) have also been found.

The Paiute Native Americans moved into the surrounding valleys and plateaus in the area around the same time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, but also supplemented their diet with some cultivated products. The Paiute in the area developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon. They believed that hoodoos were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone. At least one older Paiute said his culture called the hoodoos Anka-ku-was-a-wits, which is Paiute for "red painted faces".

Exploration and Settlement

It was not until the late 18th and the early 19th century that the first European Americans explored the remote and hard-to-reach area. Mormon scouts visited the area in the 1850s to gauge its potential for agricultural development, use for grazing, and settlement.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce and his wife Mary to settle land in the Paria Valley because they thought his carpentry skills would be useful in the area. The Bryce family chose to live right below Bryce Amphitheater - the main collection of hoodoos in the park. Bryce grazed his cattle inside what are now park borders, and reputedly thought that the amphitheaters were a "helluva place to lose a cow." Other settlers soon started to call the unusual place "Bryce's canyon", which was later formalized into Bryce Canyon.

A Lone Tree

Bryce Amphitheater

Beginning Our Descent Into the Canyon

Our second hike at Bryce was without the dogs so that we could go into the canyon. We did a spectacular 3 mile hike: Queen’s Garden / Navajo combination loop between Sunrise and Sunset points.

Amongst the Hoodoos

(That's not us)

Hoodoos

Dark Sky

The park has a 7.4 magnitude night sky, making it one of the darkest in North America. Stargazers can see 7,500 stars with the naked eye, while in most places fewer than 2,000 can be seen due to light pollution, and in many large cities only a few dozen can be seen. Park rangers host public stargazing events and evening programs on astronomy, nocturnal animals, and night sky protection. The Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, typically held in June, attracts thousands of visitors. In honor of this astronomy festival, Asteroid 49272 was named after the national park.

Wildlife Habitat

The forests and meadows of Bryce Canyon provide the habitat to support diverse animal life including foxes, badgers, porcupines, elk, black bears, bobcats, and woodpeckers. Mule deer are the most common large mammals in the park. Elk and pronghorn, which have been reintroduced nearby, sometimes venture into the park. In winter, the mule deer, cougars, and coyotes migrate to lower elevations. Ground squirrels and marmots pass the winter in hibernation.

The park also forms part of the habitat of three wildlife species that are listed under the Endangered Species Act: the Utah prairie dog, the California condor, and the southwestern willow flycatcher.

Avian Visitors

About 170 species of birds visit the park each year, including swifts and swallows. Most species migrate to warmer regions in winter, although jays, ravens, nuthatches, eagles, and owls (watch out, Max!) stay.