• Bryce Canyon Amphitheater

    Bryce Canyon

    National Park Utah

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  • U.S. Highway 89 Bryce Canyon to Grand Canyon

    Road damage south of Page, Arizona will impact travel between Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon National Parks. Click for a travel advisory and link to a map with suggested alternate routes: More »

Natural Features & Ecosystems

View from Sunset Point, snow blankets the hoodoos
Snow blankets hoodoos in this view from Sunset Point
Ray
 
Bryce Canyon National Park has an arid climate, colorful geology, and is a study in contrasts. The contrasts are a story of climate change. The wildlife and flowers living here now are very different from those whose fossils are exposed in the colorful layers of rock.

The Bryce Canyon amphitheater reveals the long geologic history of sedimentation and erosion in a colorful sequence of rocks. Faulting, uplift and erosion give access to the discovery of plant and animal life in the region 130 to 40 million years ago. The Paunsaugunt Plateau is blanketed with forests and meadows. Prescribed fire assists maintenance of natural systems in plant and wildlife ecology.

Did You Know?

Main entrance sign with Interpretation staff

Bryce Canyon, first designated Bryce Canyon National Monument on June 8, 1923; reached National Park status on September 15, 1928. More...