Geology
Bryces rocks are young by geologic standards. The parks pink Ciffs lie on top of older rock layers. This landscape got its start about 600 million years ago as sediment dropped to the bottom of a large body of water- named Lake Flagstaff by geologists. Silt and calcium carbonate and other minerals settled on the Lake bottom, the consolidated and became the Claron Formation. Lake Flagstaff has long since disappeared when the land began to rise as part of the Colorado Plateau uplift 16 million years ago. Uneven pressures beneath the plateau caused it to break along fault lines into a series of smaller plateaus at different levels known as the "Grand Staircase." Bryce Canyon occupies one of the plates the Paunsaugunt Plateau contains the famous erosion feature known as a "hoodoo" which were carved in the clarion formation. The colors in these hoodoos change and seem almost alive