Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. 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. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rock. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8000 to 9000 ft.

The Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and was redesignated as a national park by Congress in 1928. The park covers 35835 acre and receives substantially fewer visitors than Zion National Park (nearly 4.3 million in 2016) or Grand Canyon National Park (almost 6 million in 2016), largely due to Bryce's more remote location. In 2023, Bryce Canyon received 2,461,269.

Geography
The park is located in southwestern Utah about 50 mi northeast of and 1000 ft higher than Zion National Park.

Bryce Canyon National Park lies within the Colorado Plateau geographic province of North America and straddles the southeastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau west of Paunsaugunt Faults (Paunsaugunt is Paiute for "home of the beaver"). Park visitors arrive from the plateau and look over its 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 Canyon was not formed from erosion initiated from a central stream, meaning it technically is not a canyon. Instead headward erosion excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. This erosion resulted in delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos that are up to 200 ft high. A series of amphitheaters extends more than 20 mi north-to-south within the park. The largest is Bryce Amphitheater, which is 12 mi long, 3 mi wide and 800 ft deep. A nearby example of amphitheaters with hoodoos in the same formation but at a higher elevation is in Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is 25 mi to the west on the Markagunt Plateau.

Rainbow Point, the highest part of the park at 9105 ft, is at the end of the 18 mi scenic drive. From there, Aquarius Plateau, Bryce Amphitheater, the Henry Mountains, the Vermilion Cliffs and the White Cliffs can be seen. Yellow Creek, where it exits the park in the northeast section, is the lowest part of the park at 6620 ft.

Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, the park has a continental climate with warm, dry summers (Dsb). Dsb climates are defined by having their coldest month at a mean temperature below 0 °C, all months with a mean temperature below 22 °C, at least four months with a mean temperature above 10 °C, and three times as much precipitation in the wettest winter month compared to the driest summer month. The plant hardiness zone at the visitor center is 5b with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of -10.0 °F.

The weather in Bryce Canyon is cooler and receives more precipitation than Zion: a total of 15 to 18 in per year. Yearly temperatures vary from an average minimum of 9 °F in January to an average maximum of 83 °F in July, but extreme temperatures can range from -30 to 97 F. The record high temperature in the park was 98 F on July 14, 2002. The record low temperature was -26 F on February 6, 1989, and January 13, 1963.

Native American habitation
Little is known about early human habitation in the area. Archaeological surveys of the Paunsaugunt Plateau indicate that people have lived in the area for at least 10,000 years. Basketmaker Anasazi artifacts thousands of years old were found south of the park. Other artifacts from the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture (up to the mid-12th century) were found.

The Paiute Native Americans moved into the area around the time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, while supplementing their diet with cultivated plants. The Paiute in developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos. They believed that they were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone. One older Paiute said his culture called the hoodoos Anka-ku-was-a-wits, which is Paiute for "red painted faces".

European American exploration and settlement
In the late 18th and early 19th century the first European Americans explored the area. Mormon scouts visited in the 1850s to gauge its potential for agriculture, grazing, and settlement.

The first major scientific expedition was led by U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell in 1872. Powell, along with a team of mapmakers and geologists, surveyed the Sevier and Virgin River area as part of a larger survey of the Colorado Plateaus. His mapmakers used many Paiute place names.

Small groups of Mormon pioneers followed and attempted to settle east of Bryce Canyon along the Paria River. In 1873, the Kanarra Cattle Company started to graze cattle there.

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 to apply his carpentry skills. The Bryce family settled right below Bryce Amphitheater—the main collection of hoodoos. Bryce grazed his cattle inside what are now park borders, and reputedly thought that the amphitheaters were a "helluva place to lose a cow." He built a road to the plateau to retrieve firewood and timber, and a canal to irrigate his crops and water his animals. Other settlers soon started to call the unusual place "Bryce's Canyon", and the name stuck.

A combination of drought, overgrazing, and flooding eventually drove the remaining Paiutes from the area and prompted the settlers to attempt to build a water diversion channel from the Sevier River drainage. That effort failed, leading most settlers, including the Bryce family, to abandon the area. Bryce moved his family to Arizona in 1880. The remaining settlers dug a 10 mi ditch from the Sevier's east fork into Tropic Valley.

Creation of the park
These scenic areas were first described to the public in magazine articles published by Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads in 1916. Forest Supervisor J. W. Humphrey among others promoted the scenic wonders of Bryce Canyon's amphitheaters, and by 1918 more articles helped to spark interest. However, poor access to the remote area and the lack of accommodations kept visitation to a bare minimum.

Ruby Syrett, Harold Bowman, and the Perry brothers later established lodging and "touring services". Syrett later served as the first postmaster. By the early 1920s, the Union Pacific Railroad became interested in expanding rail service into southwestern Utah to accommodate tourists.

Conservationists became alarmed by the damage overgrazing, logging, and unregulated visitation was inflicting on the canyon. A movement to protect the area soon started, and National Park Service Director Stephen Mather responded by proposing that Bryce Canyon be made into a state park. The governor of Utah and the Utah State Legislature lobbied for national protection. Mather relented and sent his recommendation to President Warren G. Harding, who on June 8, 1923, established Bryce Canyon National Monument.

A road was built the same year on the plateau to provide access to outlooks over the amphitheaters. From 1924 to 1925, Bryce Canyon Lodge was built from local timber and stone.

Members of the United States Congress started work in 1924 on upgrading Bryce Canyon's protection status from national monument to national park to establish Utah National Park. A process led by the Utah Parks Company for transferring ownership of private and state-held land to the federal government started in 1923. The last of the land was acquired four years later, and on February 25, 1928, Bryce Canyon National Park was established.

In 1931, President Herbert Hoover annexed an adjoining area south of the park, and in 1942 an additional 635 acres was added. This brought the park's total area to the ultimate 35835 acres. Rim Road, a scenic drive, was completed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Park administration was conducted from Zion National Park until 1956 when Bryce Canyon's first superintendent started work.

Later
The USS Bryce Canyon, named for the park, served as a supply and repair ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet from September 15, 1950, to June 30, 1981.

Bryce Canyon Natural History Association (BCNHA) is a non-profit organization, established in 1961. It runs the bookstore inside the park visitor center and support interpretive, educational, and scientific activities. A portion of the profits from all bookstore sales are donated to public land units.

Responding to increased visitation and traffic congestion, NPS implemented a voluntary, summer-only, in-park shuttle system in June 2000. In 2004, reconstruction began on the road system.

On April 7, 2020, Bryce Canyon National Park was closed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, before a phased reopening started on May 6, 2020.

Geology


The Bryce Canyon area experienced soil deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era. The ancient depositional environment varied. Dakota Sandstone and Tropic Shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway (outcrops of these rocks are found just outside park borders). The colorful Claron Formation, source of the hoodoos, was laid deposited in a system of cool streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago (from the Paleocene to the Eocene epochs). Sediment types changed as the lakes deepened and filled and as the shoreline and river deltas migrated.

Other formations were created, but mostly eroded away following two major periods of uplift. The Laramide orogeny affected the entire western part of what would become North America starting about 70 million to 50 MYA. This event helped to build the Rocky Mountains and in the process closed the Cretaceous Seaway. The Straight Cliffs, Wahweap, and Kaiparowits formations were victims of this uplift. The Colorado Plateaus rose 16 MYA and were segmented into plateaus, separated by faults and each having its own uplift rate. The Boat Mesa Conglomerate and the Sevier River Formation were later removed by erosion.



This uplift created vertical joints, which over time preferentially eroded. The soft Pink Cliffs of the Claron Formation eroded to form freestanding hoodoo pinnacles in badlands, while the more resistant White Cliffs formed monoliths. The brown, pink, and red colors are from hematite (iron oxide; Fe2O3); the yellows from limonite (FeO(OH)*nH2O); and the purples are from pyrolusite (MnO2). Also created were arches, natural bridges, walls, and windows. Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily eroded stone that protects the column. Bryce Canyon has one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos on Earth.

The formations are part of the Grand Staircase. The oldest members of this supersequence of rock units are exposed in the Grand Canyon, intermediate ones in Zion National Park, and the youngest appear in the Bryce Canyon area. A small amount of overlap occurs in and around each park.

Ecology
More than 400 native plant species live in the park. The three life zones in the park are based on elevation: The lowest areas 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.

The forests and meadows support diverse animal life including foxes, badgers, porcupines, elk, skunks, black bears, bobcats, and woodpeckers. Mule deer are the most common large mammals. Elk and pronghorn, which have been reintroduced nearby, sometimes appear.

The park forms part of the habitat of three wildlife species listed under the Endangered Species Act: the Utah prairie dog, the California condor, and the southwestern willow flycatcher. The Utah prairie dog is a threatened species that was reintroduced to the park. The largest protected population is found in the park.

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 do not. In winter, the mule deer, cougars, and coyotes migrate to lower elevations. Ground squirrels and marmots pass the winter in hibernation.

Eleven species of reptiles and four species of amphibians have been found. Reptiles include the Great Basin rattlesnake, short-horned lizard, side-blotched lizard, striped whipsnake, and amphibians include the tiger salamander.

Also in the park are the black, lumpy, very slow-growing colonies of cryptobiotic soil, which are a mix of lichens, algae, fungi, and cyanobacteria. Together these organisms slow erosion, add nitrogen to the soil, and help it to retain moisture.

Activities


Most park visitors travel the scenic drive, which provides access to 13 viewpoints over the amphitheaters.

In total, 50 mi of trails criss-cross the park. Bryce Canyon has eight marked and maintained day hikes:

Easy to moderate hikes


 * Mossy Cave (one hour, State Route 12 northwest of Tropic)
 * Rim Trail (5–6 hours, anywhere on the rim)
 * Bristlecone Loop (one hour, Rainbow Point), and Queens Garden (1–2 hours, Sunrise Point)

Moderate hikes


 * Navajo Loop (1–2 hours, Sunset Point)
 * Tower Bridge (2–3 hours, north of Sunrise Point)

Strenuous hikes


 * Fairyland Loop (4–5 hours, Fairyland Point)
 * Peekaboo Loop (3–4 hours, Bryce Point)

Several of the trails intersect, allowing hikers to arrange routes for more challenging hikes.

The park has two trails designated for overnight trips: the 9 mi Riggs Spring Loop Trail and the 23 mi Under-the-Rim Trail. Both require a backcountry camping permit.

More than 10 mi of marked but ungroomed skiing trails are available off of Fairyland, Paria, and Rim trails. 20 mi of connecting groomed ski trails are in nearby Dixie National Forest and Ruby's Inn.

The air is so clear that on most days Navajo Mountain and the Kaibab Plateau can be seen 90 mi away in Arizona from Yovimpa and Rainbow points. On clear days, the Black Mesas of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico can be seen some 160 mi away.

The park has a 7.4 magnitude night sky, one of the darkest in North America. Stargazers can, therefore, see 7,500 stars, while in most places fewer than 2,000 can be seen due to light pollution, and in many large cities only a few dozen are visible. 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 festival, Asteroid 49272 was named after the national park.

The two campgrounds are North Campground and Sunset Campground. Loop A in North Campground is open year-round. Additional loops and Sunset Campground are open from late spring to early autumn. The 114-room Bryce Canyon Lodge is another way to stay overnight.