2020 Winter Camping Trip Day13-Bryce Canyon NP, Fairyland Loop

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day13, 2020/12/8

On the 2nd day in the Bryce Canyon National Park, we hiked Fairyland Loop. I loved Fairyland Loop sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. This hike was super amazing. During 8 mile-hike, the stunning view continues literally all the way. Besides, not many people were hiking in winter. In fact we only saw 6-7 people for the entire day. 

Hoodoos

Hoodoos are amazing and eerie. 

I didn't know the word hoodoo, but now I love hoodoos. 

First of all, hoodoos are beautiful. Secondly, hoodoos have interesting shapes and each hoodoo has a different shape. Hoodoos have different colors depending on location, and more specifically depending on composition of minerals. Those different color even changes by reflecting sunlight. Sometimes they look orange in the evening and bright light color in the morning. In this way you can enjoy the  view from the same place many times depending on a season and a time of day.

I had a chance to attend a ranger talk (outside with mask) and learned how hoodoos are formed. 

First of all, the Bryce area used to be a big lake. It was 50 millions ago. In the lake, the tiny particle accumulated: those are including limestone and sandstone, which is materials for the rocks in Bryce now. However, those materials were at sea level. Now how it rose up to 9000 feet high? The answer is two plates crashed. Then one rise, the other fell. That is why now rocks in Bryce came high. Now, how the hoodoos are made? The key is climate in Bryce. In Bryce, half of a year, each day goes below freezing point and temperature gets warm above freezing point once sun comes up. Rain or snow were absorbed inside the limestone/sandstone, then gets frozen at night. Ice volume is bigger than liquid water. Volume is actually 9% bigger! This makes the rock crack. Eventually rocks become like walls (called fin), then some portion of the rocks inside fall (gets windows), then connecting portion of the window fall eventually and hoodoos are created. In the picture above, you might notice that the top of each hoodoos have rather whiter color compared to browner color in the lower portion. This is because magnesium is contained on the top portion. That is called dolomite. Dolomite is not waterproof but water resistant. Therefore water goes down and absorbed under the dolomite portion. That's why each hoodoo's dolomite portion is kind of like a independent ball on the top. In the picture below, you can see a fin, windows, and hoodoos at the same time!

Fin, Window, Hoodoo

Evening view

After a hike, we took some pictures in the evening light from viewpoints. In the left picture the plateau in the distance under orange sky is called Aquarius plateau. It is 15 miles away from Bryce canyon now, but it used to be connected to Bryce. That is over 10,000 feet high. Due to the higher elevation than Bryce, less days goes below and up the freezing point. That is why Aquarius plateau doesn't have much hoodoos, however, in the future, global warming probably make the higher elevation more like Bryce temperature pattern. Then hoodoos might appear there, but hoodoos in Bryce might disappear.