Overview of Bryce

Bryce Canyon is an area of great geological interest in southern Utah. Other, more famous areas like Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon are nearby. Bryce, while it gets thousands of visitors each year, still does not see as much traffic as its sister canyons, which is a mixed blessing, really. It means that many people miss out on Bryce Canyon because they don't know about it, but those people who do know about it can visit the park without the inconvenience of large crowds. As a national park, anyone can visit the canyon free of charge. There are hundreds if not thousands of paths, alleys, and crevices to explore among the many ridges and columns of stone. Exploring all the major areas of the park can take days, and seeing every last corner and pathway is the labor of a lifetime.

Not a Canyon?

Technically, however, Bryce Canyon is not a canyon. When thinking of a canyon, one usually imagines a narrow pass between two mountains or a gulley between two fingers of a mountain's base. Bryce Canyon is anything but narrow. This geological wonder is 20 miles wide, and it consists of a series of gaping amphitheaters that are filled with stone columns sticking up like petrified skyscrapers. These columns are technically called Hoodoos, but I find that to be a rather unmajestic name for something so grand and mysterious (for instance, in the novel, you will never find me referring to the columns as Hoodoos). These structures are often found sticking up out of long ridges of stone, looking impossibly balanced on top of the narrow rocks beneath them. But unless you're a stickler for geography, you'll probably end up calling it a canyon, despite the technicality

People of the Canyon

The earliest peoples of whom we have records who were known to live in and around Bryce Canyon were the Anasazi. This extinct Native American group is mysterious enough in and of itself. Their civilization had been dead for centuries by the time Europeans made it to the American West. All that we do know about them comes from a few token artifacts and petroglyphs, and a handful of Navajo legends. What we do know, however, is that some time after they left, the area became inhabited by Paiute indians. The Paiutes lived off hunting and foraging and have left their own mark on the canyon in culture and artifacts.

Modern History

While many early explorers and surveyors may have been the first people of European descent to have seen the wild terrain of Bryce Canyon, its discovery is usually attributed to Ebenezer Bryce, a Scottish immigrant and Mormon pioneer who homesteaded near the canyon. As far as I can tell, he never claimed ownership of the canyon, but people in the neighborhood began to associate his name with the place, and it has stuck that way ever since. His most famous comment about the canyon was that it was a "helluva place to lose a cow." which is understandable when considering the mazelike nature of the natural stone amphitheaters. After strong appeals from the Utah State government, president Warren G. Harding bestowed National Monument Status on Bryce Canyon. The next year, it became a full blown National Park, and in 1931, President Herbert Hoover expanded the park's boundaries.

Forest or Desert?

Bryce canyon is undoubtedly sandy and dry. Like most of Utah, it is considered part of a large desert, and yet, one of the most visible landmarks of Bryce Canyon is its natural pine forest. All around the rim of the bowl that is the outer boundary of the canyon, there is a dense forest of evergreens that stretches into the surrounding countryside. A few trees grow inside the amphitheater itself, but not nearly as thickly as their cousins on the outer rim do. Still, the natural pine forest is considered one of the ecological wonders of the park, and every autumn, when the pine nuts are in season, people gather to hunt for the delicious pinyans that grow in the canyon.

Mysteries that Remain

In summer of 2006, seven young men and one girl who lived in the area of Seattle, Washington, vanished following the death of their grandfather. No trace of them was found until days later, when the entire group (save one) turned up in Bryce Canyon, wearing the same formal clothing they had been wearing at the old man's funeral viewing. Local and federal authorities asked questions, but not a soul among the group would give them any answers. Since that time, their story has become almost synonymous with this strange and ancient land formation, and the theories behind their disappearance and reappearance are debated even to this day.

My apologies for self-promoting my book in the middle of a quasi-legitimate article about Bryce Canyon. But this website is devoted to the book series, after all. And I just couldn't help myself!