Bryce Point is the best known geological feature in Bryce Canyon National Park and is an important part of the history of Bryce Canyon. It overlooks a massive amphitheater which is filled with countless hoodoos and grottoes.
Bryce Point is famous for its view to the north, across the full length of the Bryce Amphitheater. Inspiration, Sunset, and Sunrise Points can all be seen along the forested edge of the Paunsagunt plateau. Famous geologic features visible from here include the Wall of Windows near Inspiration Point, dense rows of hoodoos (irregularly eroded spires of rock) forming Silent City beside Sunset Point, and the flat top of Boat Mesa seen north of Sunrise Point. The caprock of Boat Mesa, known as the conglomerate at Boat Mesa, is the same layer you stand on now. It comprises the large boulders that have fallen just shortly below the view. This conglomerate layer is a result of a time after the fresh water lakes that deposited the colorful rocks below retreated when this area began to be uplifted by volcanic activity and eroded by streams. Evidence of massive volcanic activity that was occurring around 20 million years ago is seen in the Black Mountains further north and the Tushar Mountains seen even further off to the Northwest.
Perhaps the most iconic of the park's viewpoints, Bryce Point provides a soaring view of the Bryce Amphitheater from the south. Southern Paiutes call this place Unka Tumpi Wun-nux Tungwatsini Xoopakichu Anax, which means "Red Rock Standing Like a Man in a Hole". These hole or bowl-shaped areas--called amphitheaters--contain the world's greatest concentration of irregular rock spires called "hoodoos". There is a Southern Paiute word for "scary" or "spirit" pronounced "oo'doo", which has been associated with this place. A sacred oral tradition of the Southern Paiute states that these hoodoos are ancient “Legend People” turned into stone by the trickster god Coyote as a punishment for bad deeds.
The view and the park share the same namesake, Ebenezer Bryce, who settled in the Paria Valley to the east in 1870. Bryce lived here for only five years, but in that time, the canyon that a timber road he built travelled into became known as "Bryce's canyon" to the people who knew him. Ebenezer Bryce was a pragmatic man, constructing roads to facilitate lumber transport and surveying the route for a 10-mile irrigation ditch from the top of the plateau to the valley that would later lead to larger, more permanent settlements.
To log this virtual as a find you must complete the following tasks, which require a photo at TWO locations. Please post both of these pictures with your log, and you are welcome to post any other pictures that you take as well! Any found it logs that do not fulfill these requirements will be deleted.
1. Take a picture of yourself (you do not have to show your face), a personal item, or a sign with your name on it, with the Bryce Point Elevation 8300 sign. You will see this sign just off the parking lot, on your way to the lookout.
2. Take a picture of yourself (you do not have to show your face), a personal item, or a sign with your name on it at the posted coordinates from the Bryce Point Lookout. Your picture must show the amphitheatre in the background. Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.