By Rami Major
Sprawling across tens of thousands of acres in southern Utah, tall rock spires poke like pointy fingers high above the ground. These rock formations are eerily shaped, as if someone had precariously stacked larger rocks on top of smaller ones. In reality, these rock formations are a single structure, named hoodoos, which have arisen from the perfect mixture of forces in nature.
The world’s largest collection of hoodoos is situated in Bryce Canyon National Park. Millions of years ago, this area was filled with water, which stripped away different types of rocks from higher elevations and deposited them into the lower bowl area that is now Bryce Canyon. Over time, these rocks melded together to form a rock with many layers. Eventually, all of the water that used to flow through Bryce Canyon went away, and the area became a desert.
So, how did these rocks shoot up into the sky? The answer to this question lies in plate tectonics. Our planet has layers, with a hot core at the center and the most outer layer forming our home. This outer layer is called the Earth’s crust, and scientists believe that it consists of many “plates” that act like puzzle pieces to fit together. However, when these plates shift around, they can collide with each other and cause earthquakes or form mountains. The next step in forming hoodoos involved this collision of plates to uplift the rocks high above the ground. However, this still does not explain their final shape, so we have one last step to examine.
The weather plays a huge role in shaping our surroundings. If you’ve ever been on a hike after a large rainfall, you might have a hard time finding the trail as it could have been washed away. Water may not seem strong, but its effects on the environment are powerful. Hoodoos were sculpted by a combination of ice and rain through a process called weathering. Although rocks might seem solid, they actually contain many small holes that can fill with water. When water seeps into these holes and freezes, the rock cracks apart and breaks down. Rock plateaus form first before breaking down into “windows” of rock, which eventually break down further to form hoodoos as shown below. The reason why some of these hoodoos look lopsided lies in the rock’s composition: layers of rock that contain more of the mineral calcium carbonate are more susceptible to dissolution, as calcium carbonate can be dissolved by the mildly acidic rain that falls over the region.
The region of land now known as Bryce Canyon was once home to many people before becoming the National Park it is today. One of the first groups of people to explore Bryce Canyon was the Paiutes, who had their own legend to explain the existence of the hoodoos. The story goes that Legend People, or To-when-an-ung-wa, were living greedily on the land, using up all of the resources and leaving none for other creatures. The trickster god Coyote invited them to a feast, and froze them into rocks as they tried to leave as a punishment for their greed, creating the cascading pillars of hoodoos blanketing Bryce Canyon today.
Although we now know that nature is responsible for creating hoodoos, their mystical essence has persisted, and the lesson from the Paiutes can be carried forward today. It is important to treat our surroundings with respect, and this is especially true with our national parks. Don’t accelerate the forces of nature by leaving behind trash, carving names into rocks, or trying to topple any hoodoos! Bryce Canyon’s beauty will only persist with our cooperation.
Images of Bryce Canyon National Park hoodoos, courtesy of the author, Rami Major.
