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The Ultimate Southwest Vacation includes Bryce Canyon!
Stay in Mount Carmel Junction, the heart of the parks, and
visit the treasures of the Southwest.
Mileage from Mt. Carmel Jct.
Bryce Canyon 60 miles
Zion National Park 12 miles
Grand Staircase 9 miles
Sand Dunes 11 miles
Dixie Forest 22 miles
Cedar Breaks 45 miles
Red Canyon 47 miles
Coyote Butte 57 miles
North Rim 85 miles
Toroweap 90 miles
Plan your Bryce Canyon
vacation with our Utah
maps and information
In these pages you will find insiders information on Bryce
Canyon adventures and hiking. This detailed guide includes road maps, park maps,
pictures, trail beta, backpacking, history, fees, geology, flora, fauna, campgrounds,
things for kids to do and even information on Bryce Canyon's hidden treasures.
Making summer memories in the Utah National Parks and National
Monuments.
Utah!
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Bryce
Canyon Map
Directions to Bryce Canyon
From Salt Lake City travel south on Interstate 15 past Beaver
to UT 20. Exit on UT 20. Turn south on UT 89 and travel past Panguitch. Follow
UT 89 to UT 12. Travel along UT 12 through Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon. Turn south
on UT 63 to enter the park.
From Las Vegas: Travel Interstate 15 past St. George to Exit
16. Drive through Hurricane, Utah. Follow Hwy 9 through Hurricane and to the
only stop light in LaVerkin. Turn right at the stop light. Continue on Hwy 9
to the south entrance of Zion Park. Drive through Zion to the junction of UT
9 and UT 89 at Mt. Carmel Jct. Turn north on UT 89, then exit on UT 12.
Follow UT 12 through Red Canyon, turning south on UT 63 to enter
Bryce Canyon.
This structure began as long thin limestone rock or fin, a window
then formed in the fin resulting in the image you see. Next the top to the window
will break away leaving a hoodoo.
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Bryce Canyon Geology
Long ago, and changing over the great spans of time, the rocky area of of
Bryce Canyon was once covered by sea, mountains, desert and coastal plain. Over
millions of years, the rock and land was subject to violent storms and severe
changes. Earthquakes, mudslides and volcanoes roared upon the primitive earth,
forcing, molding and reshaping it. Seas and streams came and went, moving sediment
and depositing it in layers.
The Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon are 60 million years old. More changes occurred
until sand, gravel and sedimentary deposits filled ancient lakes within the Colorado
Plateau. These materials compressed and hardened into sedimentary rock. The hoodoos
of Bryce Canyon are 60 million year old sculpted claron rock formations which
consist of limestone, dolomite and siltstone layers. The Colorado Plateau has
risen over a time period of about sixteen million years. The Paria River and
its streams flowed through the area sculpting and eroding the walls. These sedimentary
layers contain lignite, coal and fossils, including evidence of the lush mesozoic
period when the climate of the area was tropical with lush plants and a variety
of unique animals flourished. The location at the plateau rim allows for hoodoo
formation because the steep slope gives the environment needed for the structures
to form. At the slope, faults and joints form compressional forces that guide
the patterns of erosion.
Carving the Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon
The yearly weather cycle aids the process needed for a hoodoo to form. In
Bryce Canyon it freezes at night approximately 360 days of the year. The freeze
and thaw cycle loosens the slope surface, allowing debris to be sluffed off by
water run-off. When hiking among the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon, look closely at
the fins and hoodoos and you will see the vertical cracks. The material carried
away works on the softer rock to create gullies, and ultimately canyons. The
hard rock that was left behind is further eroded along its vertical cracks, again
subjected to the freeze - thaw cycle carving the hoodoos.
Patterns form through a process of freezing and thawing. The patterns of Bryce's
rock formations show off their unique crisscross design formed though this long
process of freezing and thawing. The process still continues today, and the rock
formations continue to be designed by nature. When water seeps into the fractures
of the rocks, it dissolves the calcium carbonate that holds the small rock particles
together. In cold weather, the water turns to ice as temperatures drop, then
the ice expands pushing the fractures open. The overnight freezing and daytime
thaw are abundant, occurring two to three hundred times a year, but since different
rocks are of varied hardness, erosion takes place at different rates. Just like
at Zion National Park, erosion will continue until the plateau is flattened and
the rocks turn to sand.
What is responsible for the colors of the rock?
Rock formations, dating from the late Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic periods
include: Dakota, Tropic Shale, Straight Cliffs and Bryce's dominant and soft,
calcareous Claron Formation. Claron is a colorful combination of pinks and oranges
caused by trace amounts of iron oxide. The white formations you see in the park
are lacking the iron oxide. The pink limestone from the Claron formation, with
its iron and manganese oxides, is responsible for the reds and pinks that we
see in the rocks today.
Cedar Breaks vs Bryce Canyon
Comparing the Claron of Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon reveals the thicker more colorful Claron of Cedar Breaks. Cedar Break's smaller amphitheater is three miles wide and two thousand feet deep and the hoodoos are more pleasing to look at than those of Bryce Canyon, but the smaller park gets little visitation compared to Bryce. Cedar Breaks is located off Highway 14 atop the Markagunt Plateau. Located at a higher elevation than Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks sits at 10350'. The Bryce Canyon Visitor Center sits at just over 8000' elevation, making for much cooler weather than that of Zion National Park (6000'), and warmer weather than that of Cedar Breaks National Monument.
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