Bryce Canyon: A visit of a lifetime!

 Atrayee Roy

One of the natural wonders of the United States of America is the Bryce Canyon. Amid wilderness in the state of Utah stands tall with the spectacular geological feature called the Bryce Canyon, also known as “hoodoos”.

I am so fortunate to have visited this canyon on 20.8.24. It is about a 4–5-hour drive from Idaho, the home of Prabir and Chitta (my brother and sister-in-law). Prabir has taken us to his amazing land twice, and Chitta made sure that there was plenty of fruit and snacks to last us for those few days! This gave us the liberty to move around and not be restricted to being close to the food joints.

As we approached the 18-mile road that runs north-south through the park, the stunning geology of Southern Utah, the red rock wonderland formation by wind, water and snow gave the striking patterns and clusters of hoodoos, We reached there in the latter half of the day. We checked into a motel, kept our luggage, and quickly got ready to go to see the red and pink formations at the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. We got a map as we entered the park, and it helped us to get to the point from where we could see the horseshoe-shaped bowls. The view of the Bryce Amphitheatre was spectacular, and the traces of the streams could be seen with the curves into the plateau.

We walked towards the sunset point. It was a long walk. On our way towards the sunset area, we saw the shadow slowly cover the area as the sunset. For millions of years, water has carved Bryce’s rugged landscape. During winter, water freezes in the cracks and splits and loosens the rocks, and this cyclic process happens around 200 times a year. In summer, runoff from cloudbursts etches into the softer limestones and sluices through the deep tunnels. In about 50 years, the present rim will be cut back another foot. As the sunset, we felt the chill in the air because the temperature dropped a lot. We came back to our motel after having dinner.

Early the next morning, we got ready and went to see the sunrise from Sunrise Point. Visitors were waiting with warm jackets and cameras to capture the precious moment of the sunrise. As the light spread across the sky, the amphitheatre’s mysterious blend of rock and colour, warm yellow and orange, radiated from the deeply pigmented walls to illuminate the pale spires with early morning sun rays. The diamond ring on the opposite side between the mountains filled our hearts. The birds started chirping, signalling the sunrise!

We came back to have our breakfast and got ready to visit the entire 11-mile Rim Trail of the canyon, stopping at specific viewpoints such as Fairyland Point, Bryce Point and so on. There were natural arches and bridges surrounded by coniferous trees! We went for a short walk at first to see the flora and fauna, insects and birds that were present in nature.

It took us till lunchtime to complete all the viewing areas. We had lunch and rest for a while to come back again for the final walk to dip into the canyon and visit the Queen’s Garden (1.8-mile route).

As we came down the side of the canyon through a steep zigzag, precarious pathway viewing natural windows on the way, we reached the bottom, where a small stream ran in a meandering way. 

Trees that grew in that area were extremely tall to reach the top of the canyon for sunlight. The walk was long, but we saw the beautiful stratification of the sedimentary rocks and their wonderful formations in the Queen’s Garden. At times, it felt like it would rain. The wind was strong, but it helped us to move fast and soothe us from the hot weather. It took us more than an hour to complete the trail! The path had gentle turns while climbing up and hence it did not feel too tiring. My Kathmandu boots helped a lot for my feet to walk in that terrain! We met some deer gently grazing together with their family.

The life of hoodoos progressively changes over time as weather, wind and rain design the landscape! It was such a memorable trip!

*Student, 1989 batch