June 11, 2026–Wild, Wild West Expedition:  Bryce Canyon National Park and the Hoodoos

We have been in Bryce Canyon National Park for the past couple of days, which is another of our early eighties camping van destinations.   In case you are wondering why we traveled out West so extensively then, we lived in mid-Missouri and the West was both accessible and fun for young marrieds on a tight budget.  

Bryce is nice.  That’s all I’ve got.  Just kidding.  It’s pretty and quite distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, tall, thin spires of rock formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rock.  Bryce is much smaller and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion.  The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet.  Bryce Canyon is not technically a canyon but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.  By the way, Doug has bought a series of strange looking sunglasses at places like Buc-ee’s as we have traveled across the country. He is wearing the latest in the picture below. Also, the purple polo shirt could be circa 1999. Anyway, that’s my best guess.

So back to the Hoodoos.  Bryce Canyon has the largest concentration of Hoodoos on earth (just in case you were wondering where have all the hoodoos gone. Note: vague reference, almost never picked up by anyone under 65, unless you happen to be Julie). Native Americans, the Paiute tribe in this case, thought the hoodoos were “Legend People,” who were turned to stone by the coyote god for bad deeds.  They do kind of look like people, with their stone bodies and heads. Also, you can see in the pictures below why Bryce is called an amphitheater.

The lodge at Bryce was built in 1926 by the Union Pacific Railroad. It’s lovely, but again not at the level of Old Faithful Lodge or the Glacier Lodges. The picture below is of the original front, but now you enter from the back because the road and parking have changed. It’s weird, because it’s so underwhelming when you arrive. Our room is just over the middle of the green overhang. No air conditioning or television, but the running hot and cold water were a nice amenity.

Tonight we are in Moab, Utah. More on that later.