Before visiting Bryce Canyon National Park, we’d seen hundreds of photographs of its iconic vistas and read the accounts of numerous friends and bloggers who’d already toured this famous park. We knew it would be an impressive sight, but we had no idea just how intense the experience would be. You know how people like to say a place “took their breath away”? Well, apparently, that’s a real thing. Indeed, it’s what happened to us each and every time we walked up to the canyon rim and looked over the edge.

Just 24 miles long, Bryce is comparatively tiny. And the Bryce Amphitheater – the main canyon you envision when you think of Bryce – is only about 12 miles long. There’s a park road that runs parallel to the amphitheater, however, when you’re on that road, you can’t see the canyon. Bordered on either side by thick groves of pine trees, there’s nothing remarkable about the drive. After parking your car or exiting the shuttle bus at one of the overlook parking lots, you follow a short pedestrian path up a hill to the viewing area.

When you get to the edge of the canyon and look down, that’s when you’re almost guaranteed to lose your breath.

It is so enormous, so colorful, and so otherworldly, it defies accurate description. The only appropriate response is to let your jaw drop and accept that you’ve never seen anything like it.

And we weren’t the only ones who felt this way. Wandering among the tourists standing at the overlooks, we could hear the same sorts of stunned reactions we’d had ourselves. Even more astonishing, over the course of our week at Bryce, our reaction to seeing the canyon never diminished. Every visit was just as mind blowing as the first.

I think there are two reasons for this seemingly limitless wonderment: First, Bryce is impossible to capture in a photograph. Not a single photo I took comes close and when I think about it, none of the photos I’d seen previously came close either. So, however much you may believe you know what the canyon looks like, when you actually see it in person, it just blows you away. Second, I think the approach has a big impact. With a lot of other one-of-a-kind sites, you can sort of see what’s coming before you get there. If you visit Zion National Park, you can see the red rock formations as you drive through the town of Springdale on your way to the park entrance. If you visit Horseshoe Bend, you can see the gaping hole in the earth as you walk toward it from the parking lot. If you visit White Sands National Monument, you’ll drive several miles into the park before you find yourself surrounded by the sands. But with Bryce, one minute you’re standing in a completely mundane parking lot surrounded by pine trees, and the next you’re looking at this:

Bryce Canyon National Park

What IS this place, anyway?

Bryce Canyon National Park

The (really) short explanation is that Bryce is the result of a perfect combination of land and weather. Hundreds of millions of years ago this entire region (Southern Utah and Northern Arizona) was covered in water. Rivers flowed into a sea and deposited sediment. Over millions of years, as a result of seismic activity, the landscape changed entirely causing the sea to dry up, leaving all the sediment behind. The sediment eventually hardened into rock, which, over the next several million years, eroded. But, unlike the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park which are the result of river erosion, Bryce resulted from freeze/thaw cycles.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce is located at over 8,000 feet of elevation and is subject to extreme temperature swings. When we were there in May, it would be in the high 70’s during the day but drop into the 30’s at night. The area also gets a lot of snow – not in the sense of depth, but in the sense of frequency. Because of the wild swings in temperature, the snow melts, the water seeps into the rock, and, overnight, it refreezes, causing the rock to erode. This happens over and over and over again, hundreds of times each year.

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

The erosion particular to Bryce results in formations known as “hoodoos.” A hoodoo is a tall skinny spire of rock. As it erodes, the different layers of rock, formed hundreds of millions of years ago from all that sediment, are exposed (siltstone, mudstone, limestone, etc.) and because of the different minerals found in those layers, the colors of the hoodoos vary.

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

Here’s a neat example of the erosion taking place:

A window at Bryce Canyon National Park

You can see where the center of this wall has eroded away and left a “window.” Several years down the line, the top of the window will collapse and two separate chunks will remain.

From the overlooks, you’ll see different collections of these hoodoos…some sections of canyon have more hoodoos than trees whereas in others, trees dominate the landscape:

Bryce Canyon National Park

Once you hike down into the canyon, things get even more impressive as you realize how big these formations are.

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

Many of the hoodoos are “named” by the park and, as you hike along the trails (these photos are from the Navajo Loop/Queens Garden Trail), you can try to find them. Of course, Kevin wanted to find the hoodoo named  “Thor’s Hammer”…

See it?

Here. Let let Captain America help….

Oh, the irony….

Other times, you just come up with your own interpretations. It’s basically one giant Rorschach Test….

This one looked like a set of candle flames…

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

This one was someone raising their fist in the air…

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

This one was a king’s throne…with Gumby standing in the background:

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

This one was a vanilla/chocolate ice cream cake (in the back) that was melting all over the table….

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park

This was “ants marching…”

Hikers at Bryce Canyon National Park

Ok, that’s not really a formation, but looking down on these switchbacks and ALL the people walking back and forth… can’t you kind of hear Dave Matthews singing in the background??

Speaking of which, while we loved Bryce, eventually we wanted to get away from all this….

Tourists at Bryce Canyon National Park

so we took a day trip over to Kodachrome Basin State Park which is just 25 miles away. We hiked the 6 mile Panorama Trail and just loved it. It’s a beautiful hike, especially if you go out to “Panorama Point” which offers a – you guessed it – panoramic view of the entire park.

Everything about Kodachrome is pretty dramatic, including the entrance….

The entrance to Kodachrome State Park

There are all kinds of interesting rock formations and lots of greenery and wildflowers…

Scenery at Kodachrome State Park

Even though the park is located just a few miles from Bryce, it felt worlds away. Indeed, sometimes it felt like we were on a whole other planet:

Can you see why Utah was inspired to request permission from Kodak to use their trademarked name?

Different colored rock formations at Kodachrome State Park

Also, isn’t it weird to think most kids today will have no idea what that term even refers to?

Kodachrome State Park

We had some dramatic clouds to complement the dramatic cliffs….

Kodachrome State Park

But best of all, there were no other ants marching here. We had the whole place to ourselves.

If you find yourself at Bryce, we thought it was well worth the time to check out Kodachrome. Alternatively, the park has a campground, so it could be a destination in itself or a home base for the whole area. Either way, it’s a lovely, quiet, colorful oasis in the mountains of Utah.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visits to both parks. For sheer impact, Bryce wins hands down. For peace and quiet, Kodachrome edges Bryce. Either way, you really can’t go wrong in this stunningly beautiful section of Utah.

And, with a svelte 1291 words, I am going to stop writing.

(except to say: Next week: Page, Arizona!!)

________________________________________________________________________

Where we stayed: Ruby’s Inn and RV Campground

27 COMMENTS

  1. Wow! Stunning photos! It really looks like another planet. I like the creativity in naming what the formations look like ????

    • We’ve only experienced a teeny tiny sliver of it so far, but from what we’ve seen, it is definitely a contender!

    • Yeah, there are enough lesser known trails, plus all the other state parks nearby, that you could easily stay a week. We certainly never got bored.

  2. You are so right about Bryce …. photographs do not capture that perplexing sight. The Fairyland trail at Bryce usually has few other hikers. We were only in Kodachrome for a couple of hours and I know I need to go back and camp for a few nights to immerse myself in that landscape. I love southern Utah!

    • I think you all would love staying at Kodachrome. We only checked out the one trail, but there are a lot of them and the whole place is just so colorful and interesting. Plus, you can camp there and check out all the other neat stuff nearby. We absolutely loved our time in this part of Utah. Still so much more to see in the rest of it, but right now, we’re happy to be heading up into the mountains.

  3. We’ve been to Bryce several times and it truly is a magical landscape. I think you did a fantastic job of capturing the beauty in your photos! The Queen’s Garden/Navajo Loop is one of our favorite trails and it’s fun for me to look at your photos and say, “I recognize that formation!”. Even though I’ve been enough times that I can recognize specific ROCKS I still want to go back. Love Kodachrome Basin, too—we camped there a few years ago and it was wonderfully remote and peaceful.

    • Yup! I had the same experience as we were walking that trail because it’s SO popular and so many people write and photograph various formations on it. It really is a fantastic trail – and we were happy to find at least a break from the craziness as we got further into it. We were rarely alone, but at least it wasn’t like being on the rim. THAT was nuts!

  4. Dramatic, magical, fantastic are not enough words to describe as you said, but your narrative is the best, Those ants were as amazed as you were but no sense hanging out with them. You had the right idea of visiting Kodachrome, for you had it to yourself! And oh did you drive Scenic highway 12? I can’t believe Capt America strangled Thor! All the trails we followed were all favorites, cant pick a single one, the place rocks! Your photos captured the essence of of the fairyland.

    • Thanks ML! We were on Scenic Byway 12 for a while, but we didn’t drive the whole route. We really should have, but we figured we would leave it for another trip. We have a LOT more Utah exploring to do, so we’ll get there eventually. We really did love Bryce. It was just so different than anything else. I never did find those “cowboy boots” you all found though. 🙁

  5. Your photos did a pretty good job of showing Bryce Laura ! Absolutely amazing! We also enjoyed the hikes in Kodachrome!

    • Thank you so much! It is such a beautiful place, it’s hard to take a bad photograph, and yet, I really feel like none of them ever really capture what it feels like to stand there. Crazy…. but we feel very fortunate to have seen it.

  6. Utah has so much beauty and every park is so very different. Bryce is a one of a kind magical place. So glad you finally got to witness Bryce in person. Kodachrome is definitely a place to get away from the crowds. Another fantastic place. I’m sorry you didn’t get to Red Canyon. That is another gorgeous place that people just drive by on there way into Bryce. There are amazing trails filled with beauty on both sides. We really enjoy this park. Next time:)

    • Yes, we saw Red Canyon, but we had enough to keep us busy in Bryce to just do the one excursion day and we chose Kodachrome instead (Kodachrome was a bit farther away from Bryce, which was good. 🙂 ) We will most certainly be back in the area as we just scratched the surface of what was there, so Red Canyon will be on the list for next time. And yes, I agree completely, Utah is just spectacular and each park has its own unique feel. We have a LOT more to see!

  7. Like everyone else (yeah, we’re not unique) we loved Bryce. Unlike others, we liked Bryce more than Zion. Hiking down into Bryce Canyon was just so beautiful (until everyone else woke up and started hiking then too). Instead of Kodachrome, we hit Red Canyon for our crowd getaway. We’ll have to try Kodachrome next time though. Is it dog friendly?

    • Yup, Red Canyon is on our “next time” list and Kodachrome will be on your “next time list.” I feel like we could spend an entire year just exploring the parks in Utah and never run out of trails to hike and sights to see. What an incredible place! And yes, Opie would be more than welcome at Kodachrome. I believe all the state parks in Utah allow dogs as long as they’re on leash.

    • Yeah, I can imagine the weather there is pretty tricky. We were even a little nervous about going when we did as we heard they can get snow up there as late as May. As much as we enjoy having new experiences, we have no desire to drive a motorhome in snow. 🙂

  8. I will probably cry when I get to see Bryce for the first time. That’s what I unexpectedly did at both Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and quirky perspective once again!

    • Yeah, I can totally imagine that. These places are just so overwhelming.. they cannot be accurately described or photographed. You truly have to be standing right there to “get” what they are all about. Truly incredible stuff.

    • I would absolutely love to go back for another week or two just to explore the lesser known trails at Bryce and the other trails at Kodachrome. Plus, there’s Red Canyon which we didn’t even visit. There’s a LOT to see in that region and we barely scratched the surface.

Leave a Reply to Laura Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here