Bryce National Park is at the southern end of Utah, on the Escalante plateau - along with many other national parks / areas of scenic beauty and national monuments (America has lots of different status names for it's nicer areas - depending on how's it's funded and managed etc).

Bryce is exceptional thanks to the thousands of sandstone columns known as "hoodoos". (Actually, nearby Cedar Breaks is similar, but relatively unknown compared with Bryce. If Bryce were not there, Cedar Breaks would get the biscuit - so I recommend a trip to Cedar Breaks - it's less crowded.) The shot above is looking down into the Bryce Canyon, with Escalante visible on the horizon (the white cliffs). As Ebenezer Bryce who found the area in 1959 said "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow"

The temperature was hot, but the plateau is wuite high (about 8-9 thousand feet here) - so the normal 90F-110F heat is actually cooler here - about 50F-70F.

Cost to enter the park is about $20 for a car (irrespective of how many people inside - we had six!) - oh and don't speed about. Almost all state troopers and local sheriff cruisers have dash mounted radar. We passed a deputy sheriff cruiser when we were doing about 55 in a 35MPH zone and he spun round immediately and came back behind us with sirens wailing - fortunately - PASSED us by and pulled up the guy in front who was going a little bit faster! - however, it slowed me down a bit :)

Enjoy the pictures - it took us about 3-4 hours drive from Las Vegas, via Zion to Bryce - so it's a long day out - but well worth it.

This is a stitched shot - three pictures taken with my trusty Olympus 2100UZ zoomed in over the canyon rim.

The area is simply a sandstone plateau eroded by rain / ice and wind over millenia into these amazing columns. You can walk about on several trails through the park - America's National Park Service, part of the Deprtment of the Interior do a bloody fantastic job in my opinion. Their rangers are helpful, enthusiastic and informed. The trails clearly marked with the route and route length.

To give you some idea of height, the columns here tower above the fir trees just visible in the lower left fo the picture. They are massive! and dwarf you when you get amongst them.

This is a another stitched shot - four pictures this time - who needs a wide-angle lens :)

The cliff to the left of the shot is probably the best viewpoint for the canyon, however the whole rim is littered with viewpoints.
All done very tastefully bearing in mind the volume of visitors it receives.

 

Yet another stitched shot

The banding effect fo different sedimentary deposits is clearly visible here both on the hoodoos and the cliff sides.