Bryce is known for its colorful, rocky spires called hoodoos. To hike among them is rewarding - and tiring. All things Bryce and beautiful Christine Maxa Special for The Republic Golden light splashes across the pinnacled canyon as a handful of people peer quietly into the stunning chasm. Standing like children holding their breath, no one is talking. A camera shutter clicks.
Someone conspicuously whispers.
And then more reverent silence. Neither name mirrors the poetry that southern Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park exudes. Nor do they correctly describe the park, which is not a canyon but a series of amphitheaters in the Pink Cliffs of the Paunsagunt Plateau. But just the mention of Bryce conjures up a mental picture of its hoodoos, the thousands of spires, fins, arches and mazes reminiscent of sand castles dripped from giant hands. They'll say Zion and the Grand Canyon don't even come close.