Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce
Canyon in Utah is a splendidly baroque landscape where erosion has
whittled armies of fantastic sculptures in huge painted
amphitheaters. Pink, white and pale yellow cliffs crumble down into
valleys filled with rows of towering spires.
Bryce is the top step
in the "Grand Staircase"- a series of ascending geological layers
that climbs up from the Grand Canyon in the south. The rocks of
Bryce and nearby Cedar Breaks are the sediments of an ancient inland
seas, shores, and lakes compressed into stone. These thick layers of
sandstone were pressed down by the weight of the volcanic ash from
erupting volcanoes. As the ash eroded away the older rock layer
floated up. It's edges crumbling and flaking like icebergs calving
off a glacier.
Erosion continually rasp away at the cliffs; filling off a few feet
per century. The erosion is fickle- bypassing harder rock to carve
out spines and rows of segmented pillars. Curtains of rock curl away
from the sloping ramparts of the cliffs. Each layer has it's own
shade- A different tint each century, and new color every million
years. The chalky rock crumbles down to the base of the cliffs where
the colors of the different millennia are mixed like a sand painting.
The rock
towers seen here are known as "Hoodoos". They often appear in rows
as a fin of rock standing out from a cliff is further eroded into
segments. Where they are dense enough they create mazes of pocket
canyons.
A natural bridge formed by an eroding rock fin.
A Bristlecone pine hugs the edge of a cliff.
These trees can live for hundreds of years.
They grow slowly in the harsh conditions of the exposed cliff edges.
Other Bryce views.
Other Bryce Links
- Ben's, and Ron's Amazing Adventure: Bryce.
All images © John Donohue, 1995,1996