Bryce Canyon National Park Favorites

Favorite thing: In October or November, 2006, the walls above Wall Street collapsed from the natural erosion of water, freezing and thawing. The park has decided not to reopen the trail because it is a great opportunity to study the natural processes of the canyon.

Favorite thing: Bryce Canyon Entrance Fee (Include unlimited use of park shuttles in summer months)

1) For a private vehicle (Non-Commercial)
Fees $20 - 7 Days

2) Motorcycles, bicyclists, or individuals traveling on foot.
Fees $10 - 7 Days

3) For other types of vehicles, http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm

Favorite thing: Let’s make no secret of it. We both like a nice cold glass of beer. Being abroad is always a challenge to find a beer we like, which reflects our taste of having a beer. In America it wasn’t really that hard to find the brand we liked, it was clearly Budweiser, popularly referred to as Bud.

Budweiser is a lager made with a proportion of rice as a substitute adjunct for barley malt. This immedaitely shows the problem for selling it in Europe as traditional brewers serve beer with only the four main ingredients (water, hops, wheat and barley). So Budweiser is not produced accoring to the German "Reinheitsgebot". But we found out that it didn’t taste distinctively different.

The Budweiser bottle is a rather familiar icon to most Americans. The bottle has remained relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1876. We liked it, but the fraze “King of all Beers” is a bid of an overstatement!

Favorite thing: * The proces of erosion happens all the year round, but especially during a period of thaw;
* The steep and heavily erode stone walls and the severe cold winters don't allow too much fauna to grow;
* The National Park is named after the Mormom Ebenezer Bryce, who tried to drive his cattle through the canyon;
* Bryce Canyon consists of 37,277 acres of scenic colourful rock formations and desert wonderland;
* Hoodoo is a pillarn of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.

Favorite thing: * Congress created Bryce National Monument in 1923;
* In 1928, Bryce Canyon was designated Bryce Canyon National Park;
* Bryce Canyon is part of The Paunsaugunt Plateau;
* There are a lot of nicknames for Bryce Canyon, like Catherdral Valley and the Bryce Amphitheatre;
* Bryce Canyon is the youngest step of The Grand Staircase;
* The name of the step Bryce Canyon is part of is called Pink Cliffs.

Favorite thing: The beforesaid – horizontal layers and vertical joints is very distinctively seen in the hoodoos all over the place.

The hoodoos are formed by frost wedging on the one hand – which results in the joints and cracks.

In addition, the slightly acidic rainfall dissolves the limestone and over the years

the little-rocks-standing-like-men are carved out of the Bryce Canyon layers –
- which brings us back to the legend of how Bryce Canyon was formed.
:-)

Favorite thing: In addition to weathering, also chemical erosion takes place. Rain water can carry traces of acid. These dissolve calcium carbonate, cemented between the individual grains. The result are constantly increasing and forming holes, cavities, alcoves.

Oxidation takes place as well. Remember, the layers contain iron and manganese.
Iron bearing minerals – in contamination with water – will rust (oxidize) and form haematite, the red colored mineral.
If more water is in contact with the iron bearing minerals, yellow colored limonite is formed.
And finally, manganese oxide adds a little blue or purple or lavender to the scenery.

Favorite thing: Different sculptures are formed where different chemistry is involved in the layers.

The upper layers of white fresh-water limestone is quite massive and it’s “missing” impurities makes it more resistent to erosion than the reddish silt and clay parts in the layers below.

In the picture, an example for this is seen – a close-up into Sunrise Point – alternating beds of carbonate rich (white) and carbonate poor (red) rocks, which are so characteristic for Bryce Canyon formation.