Bryce Canyon National Park

Welcome to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah, a place that looks less like a landscape and more like an elaborate, multi-colored stone cathedral. As you stand here today, you are perched on the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.^[2] You might find yourself feeling a little winded, and there is a good reason for that: you are currently between eight thousand and nine thousand feet above sea level.^[3] Despite its name, you are not actually standing in a canyon.^{[4] [5]} Instead, you are looking out over a series of massive, natural amphitheaters carved into the pink cliffs.^[5] This high-altitude desert is home to the largest concentration of hoodoos, those strange, spindly rock spires, found anywhere on the planet. As you look out over the rim, notice how the light plays on the white, pink, and orange layers of the rock, transforming the view every few minutes as the sun moves across the sky. You have arrived at a masterpiece millions of years in the making.^[6]