I’m a Hoodoo Child – Bryce Canyon National Park

Working for the National Park Service seems to be a bit of a tradition for Maggie and her mom, Heidi. While Maggie was working on the archeology team at Colorado National Monument summer of 2025, Heidi landed an Interpretation Ranger position at Bryce Canyon National Park. Everything aligned for us to visit Heidi in the park over Labor Day weekend.

28 August 2025

I packed up the van and drove for a few hours after work to split up the long drive from Santa Fe. I slept at Angel Peak Badlands, a BLM picnic area we had stayed at before. 

29 August 2025

I woke up to a moody sunrise over the badlands. I took in the view and hit the road by 7 am. It was a haul through the Navajo Nation, over Glen Canyon dam, and up into the high desert of southern Utah. I met Maggie at the visitor center and we found Heidi in uniform at the end of her shift. Once Heidi got off work, we went for a sunset stroll along the amphitheater rim.

This was our first time at Bryce Canyon. I had seen plenty of imagery beforehand, but seeing it with your own eyes is always different. Bryce is famous for its fins, spires, and hoodoos carved into colorful layers of limestone. The evening light looked stunning on the landscape. Needless to say, I was awestruck!

Fifty million years ago, this area was a fresh water lake and flood plain near sea level. Calcium rich sediment from nearby mountains collected and formed limestone. The land was then thrust upwards by tectonic activity. Bryce Canyon now sits between 8,000-9,000 feet, an elevation which is conducive to frequent freeze thaw erosion. This turned out to be the perfect formula for hoodoos to form in abundance.

As the sunlight waned, we wandered into the Bryce Canyon Lodge for dinner. Recent rains had left parts of the rim trail pretty muddy. We tracked clumps of mud into the nice restaurant in the lodge. Our waiter looked at the floor and asked, “What happened here??” We were embarrassed to admit the mess was out fault! He laughed it off and took our order. The food was quite good, much higher quality than I would have expected for a somewhat remote outpost. After dessert and an extra glass of wine, we called it a night.

30 August 2025

Maggie and I went over to Heidi’s compact little condo in park housing for breakfast where we made a plan for the day. Heidi knew the trails well and how to get around the park. We decided to do the Bryce Traverse, a point to point route. We took advantage of the park shuttle bus to take us to the far trail head, then we would hike back to the car near the lodge.

Our journey started at Bryce Point where we got to take in another sweeping view. It’s hard to decide where to look as your eyes jump between every little interesting detail.

The three of us made our way down into the amphitheater, a new perspective with each foot of elevation we descended. Going from above, to being level with, and finally below the hoodoos, we finally got to see the secrets hidden from view at the canyon rim.

Limestone always surprises me. There is no definitive description for this rock. Every batch has a different recipe depending on who the cooks were in the geological kitchen so many eons ago. Here at Bryce, I thought the limestone was quite chunky, almost looking like conglomerate with smaller stones glued together by sediment. Perhaps this is a factor in how it erodes into such wonderful structures.

I was excited to see Great Basin Bristlecone Pines, Pinus longaeva. This species has the oldest living individual organisms on Earth, dated to 3,500 years old. Those elders reside near the CA/NV border. The trees here at Bryce looked quite stunted and scrappy. Nonetheless, it’s always cool to see plants that withstand such a harsh environment where little else can grow.

We finished our hike, refueled with some lunch, and drove to the other overlooks on the south end of the park. The road ends at Rainbow Point. You can almost see the full length of the mesa here. I was happy to have my binoculars to inspect points of interest. We stopped at the Natural Bridge overlook to round out the day, weaving between the other visitors to get an obligatory selfie.

Day 1 was an awesome intro to Bryce Canyon, but Heidi had more to show us the next day.

31 August 2025

Day 2 was a two-fer! We started on familiar ground, hiking along the canyon rim to do the Fairyland Loop. The morning was calm an quiet with a hint of autumn crispness as summer faded into fall. After 2.5 miles on the rim, the three of us descended amongst the hoodoos once again. At first, we were on knolls and ridges with great views of the features all around.

The trail weaved in and out of minor canyons and took us down to a broad drainage. Tall Ponderosa pines grew down here with a steady source of water. A short detour off the main trail took us to the Tower Bridge view point. There are endless improbable shapes in the hoodoos, but I think this one takes the cake! It truly does look like Tower Bridge in London – sheer pillars with a perfectly horizontal bridge spanning the gap. This is unlike any of the curved sandstone arches Utah is known for.

From the bottom of the wash, we climbed up and out of the amphitheater, through tunnels, and weaving our way between crowds. Doing a loop was really cool, since we got to circumnavigate a portion of the park and get a full 360 perspective on some features. Our hike ended up being 8.5 miles with 1,500 feet of vertical, a solid warm up for the day!

I think we happily could have lounged for the afternoon, but Heidi wasn’t done with us yet! After lunch, we drove to the Willis Creek Slot Canyon, just east of the national park in Grand Staircase National Monument. We started off in a wash with cliffy sandstone walls about 20 feet tall, fairly typical canyon country scenery. It only took about half a mile until the canyon walls closed in. Countless flash floods have left a curvaceous profile in the rock. The weakest layers eroded out a little more, creating beautiful ribbing patterns in the strata.

There were four sections of narrow slots, about ten feet wide and 40 feet deep. I love the way in which light and shadows dance in these types of canyons. Hues bounce around, shaded areas become bright, water reflects the color of stone.

The canyon opened up to a wide sandy wash. A lone leaning tower of a ponderosa pine was standing watch. This was certainly one of the tallest ponderosas I’ve ever seen, and I was not expecting to find it in the desert of southern Utah!

Our little canyon jaunt came out to 5.2 miles, for a total of 13.7 on the day. We were definitely worn out, but very glad to have fit both of these hikes in.

It was a real treat to visit a National Park that was new to us and have Heidi as our tour guide! I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Utah’s canyon country. I would argue that Bryce Canyon is one of the most unique and striking areas within the Colorado Plateau. The colors, textures, and hoodoos are simply mind boggling! Don’t take it from me, go see it for yourself…