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Fairyland Canyon is one mile North of the Bryce Canyon Visitor’s Center and has fewer visitors than other
areas of the park, as many people drive right past the entrance to the one mile road to Fairyland Point on
their way to the canyon overlooks as you cannot see the canyon from the road. In the canyon, orange and
pink hoodoo formations seasoned with Ponderosa Pine, Pinyon Pine and Juniper, and the occasional
Bristlecone Pine accent the Bentonite clay slopes in this exceptionally scenic part of the Southwest.
Click an image to open a larger version.
Use your back button to return to this page.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon Gallery:
Fairyland
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Boat Mesa at Sunrise 6570
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Boat Mesa and Fairyland Canyon hoodoos as the first rays of sunrise reach Fairyland Point on a late August morning.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Boat Mesa at Sunrise 6576
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Five minutes later, the hoodoos begin to fluoresce as the light warms, signaling the beginning of the ‘Golden Hour’.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise 6591
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A group of hoodoos on the Northeast slope of Boat Mesa fluoresce in the early morning light.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise 6585
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A view down Fairyland Canyon past iridescent red-orange hoodoos and pink fins rich in manganese oxides.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise 6600
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The view down Fairyland Canyon, past Boat Mesa hoodoos to the Tropic Valley and the Table Cliffs beyond.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6604
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Hoodoos on the North slope of Boat Mesa.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6605
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If the light is right, some hoodoos appear nearly translucent.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise X1802
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A solitary fin partway down the Fairyland Trail has eroded into a grove of hoodoos.
This image was taken not long after sunrise during a beautiful clear morning in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6613
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A series of detail shots of the “Hoodoo Grove” in
Fairyland Canyon taken during a session in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6617
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Hoodoos are irregularly-shaped spires of sedimentary rock eroded into ‘totem-pole’ formations by frost wedging and rain.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6615
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The “Hoodoo Grove” guards the uphill side of an erosion amphitheater containing a single, somewhat phallic hoodoo. The harder rock forming the capstone of the hoodoos protects the relatively softer rock below from the elements. Windows are eroded in cracks at boundaries of softer rock, which will eventually separate sections of the fin into individual hoodoos. You can see horizontal ridges in the face of the fin at the boundaries of the sedimentary layers, and vertical cracks which have been opened by frost wedging, which are causing the sections of the fin to separate. Eventually these hoodoos will separate to stand as a group of individual pillars, like those seen earlier at the base of Boat Mesa.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6616c
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Detail of the erosion windows below the capstones, formed of harder limestone layers at the top of the fin.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoo at Sunrise 6608
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The solitary hoodoo at the base of the erosion amphitheater just beyond the “Hoodoo Grove”.
Frost wedging has nearly separated a large flake from the hoodoo on the uphill side facing us.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon images:
Fairyland
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise X1803
(598 KB)
An extremely colorful set of fins at the base of Boat Mesa. The pink areas are rich in
manganese oxide, and the red-orange areas have a higher concentration of iron oxides.
The shaded fin in the left foreground is well on its way to eroding into a group of hoodoos.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6626
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Hoodoos at the base of Boat Mesa, fluorescing at sunrise.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6627
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Detail of the upper right group of hoodoos in image 6626.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon 6635
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The colorful group of fins and hoodoos below Boat Mesa, an hour after sunrise in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon X1848
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The group of hoodoos and fins below Boat Mesa, taken from the same position an hour and a half after sunrise in late June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon X1849
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The same view from a little further up the trail, looking directly down Fairyland Canyon early on a clear morning in late June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise X1805
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Iridescent hoodoos and a solitary purple-pink fin at the Northwest corner
of Boat Mesa, not long after sunrise on a beautifully clear June morning.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Wall at Sunrise X1808
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The view up the steep canyon slope past Juniper, Manzanita, Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir to the hoodoos and caves in the Fairyland Canyon wall just after sunrise in June.
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Bryce Canyon Ponderosa Pine Fairyland X1838
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A Ponderosa Pine stands in front of the red-orange hoodoos of the Fairyland Canyon wall and a brilliant blue Utah sky, an hour after sunrise on a clear morning in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland at Sunrise X1810
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An enormous hoodoo formation erupts from a landscape of Ponderosa Pine, Juniper,
Douglas Fir and Manzanita above the Fairyland Canyon Trail just after sunrise in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise X1827
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A Ponderosa Pine beside an iridescent hoodoo formation in Fairyland Canyon, near the end of “Golden Hour” in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Wall X1829
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A huge red-orange fin in the Fairyland Canyon wall, about halfway down the trail and an hour after sunrise in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Trail X1812
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Bristlecone Pine, Juniper and Ponderosa Pine below a huge red-orange fin on the Fairyland Trail.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon images:
Fairyland
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Trail X1817
(596 KB)
Fairyland Canyon Trail traverses a red-orange Bentonite clay landscape
past fins and hoodoos formed from limestone, sandstone and mudstone.
The highly-saturated colors are best displayed in the hour after sunrise.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Trail X1818
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The Fairyland Trail offers superb Southwest scenery, and quite often you can have it all to yourself.
The park shuttle does not stop at Fairyland Canyon, and it does not get as many visitors as many of
the other sections of Bryce Canyon, but the Fairyland scenery and formations are just as spectacular.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Trail at Sunrise X1819
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This shot taken nearly into the sun shows Junipers, Pinyon Pine
and fluorescent hoodoos at the bottom of Fairyland Canyon near the
junction with Campbell Canyon, overlooked by an ancient Bristlecone Pine.
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Bryce Canyon Bristlecone and Hoodoos in Fairyland X1823
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An ancient Bristlecone Pine stands precariously on the slope above the trail,
framed by a group of red-orange hoodoos and fins on a clear morning in June.
Great Basin Bristlecone Pines grow slowly, at high elevations near the tree line.
Some Bristlecone Pines are nearly 5000 years old, and they are the oldest single
living organisms on Earth (some clonal colonies such as the Pando Aspen grove
and the King’s Lomatia are as old as 50,000 to 80,000 years, although individual
plants of the colony are far younger). The oldest Bristlecone Pine (Prometheus),
4862 years old by ring count, was cut down by a research student in 1964. The
oldest living Bristlecone (4842 years) is Methuselah in the White Mountains.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon Landscape 6643
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The Fairyland Canyon landscape about an hour after sunrise in August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoo at Sunrise X1825
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A small Juniper stands alone beside an iridescent hoodoo formation
near the end of the “Golden Hour” on a beautiful clear morning in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise X1833
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A Fairyland hoodoo formation, an hour after sunrise in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Trail X1844
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Ponderosa Pine and canyon foliage on the Fairyland Trail.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Landscape X1851
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Hoodoos erupt from the Douglas Fir forest in Fairyland Canyon at mid-morning in June.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon images:
Fairyland
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Bryce Canyon Boat Mesa Trail Fairyland X2099
(483 KB)
A narrow trail climbs a ridge to a small outcropping below Boat Mesa,
with intimidatingly steep falloffs on either side of the knife’s edge of the ridge.
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Bryce Canyon Boat Mesa View Fairyland X2103
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The view to the East from the small outcropping below Boat Mesa. At the far left is
Sinking Ship Mesa, and beyond the Fairyland Canyon and Campbell Canyon hoodoos
is Tropic Valley (part of the Paria River Valley) and the Escalante Mountains in the distance.
— This image is provided at 1600 x 900 without watermark (for personal use only). —
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Bryce Canyon Boat Mesa View Fairyland X2106
(705 KB)
One minute after the previous image, the clouds in front of the sun moved enough
to light Sinking Ship Mesa and the foreground, and shade the Campbell Canyon
area on the right just enough for the color to emerge from the hoodoo formations.
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Fairyland Canyon Trail X2107
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Fairyland Canyon Trail on a late afternoon in June, looking to the Southwest
beyond a forest of hoodoo formations towards the sun and Fairyland Point.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Boat Mesa 6648
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Boat Mesa and the hoodoos below Fairyland Point about an hour after sunrise in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Boat Mesa at Sunset X2149
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Boat Mesa and the hoodoos below Fairyland Point about an hour before sunset in late June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunrise 6579
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An arc of hoodoos near Fairyland Castle (on the left), at the base of Boat Mesa at sunrise in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos 6656
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The same arc of hoodoos near Fairyland Castle at the base of Boat Mesa an hour after sunrise in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Castle at Sunrise 6583
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Fairyland Castle, just after sunrise in late August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Castle at Sunset 6500
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Fairyland Castle, 90 minutes before sunset in August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Fin at Sunrise 6631
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A purplish-pink and red-orange fin near the base of Boat Mesa at sunrise.
Red-orange is due to iron oxides in the rock, purplish-pink is manganese oxide.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos 6467
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Detail of a group of Fairyland Canyon fins and hoodoos near the base of Boat Mesa, shaded in the late August afternoon. You can clearly see how the hoodoos are eroding from fins, with the harder capstones forming spearpoints atop the softer rock below. The sedimentary layers are clearly delineated by horizontal ridges across the fins and hoodoos, and vertical cracks between many of the hoodoos provide a path for water to enter, where it can freeze and expand, forcing the cracks to widen further by the process of frost wedging, and eventually separating the hoodoos into individual pillars of rock.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos 6470c
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos Sinking Ship X1895
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The late afternoon view to the North from Sunset Point showing the Queen’s Garden and
Fairyland hoodoos, Sinking Ship Mesa, and the Aquarius Plateau on the distant horizon.
The Aquarius Plateau is the highest in North America at 11,000 feet. The Queen Victoria
formation is at left center, and at the left frame edge are the Queen’s Court formations.
Top left is the Chinese Wall formation below Boat Mesa, to the left of the Sinking Ship.
In the upper right is the Mormon Temple and the landscape below Bristlecone Point.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon images:
Fairyland
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos 6474
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Hoodoos and fins erupt from Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir and Juniper forest at the base of Boat Mesa in late afternoon.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos 6491
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Detail of an orange, yellow and pink section of the Fairyland Canyon hoodoos, taken in the late afternoon near sunset.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset 6472
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Fairyland hoodoo formations at the base of Boat Mesa, in the late afternoon near sunset in August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset 6509
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The Fairyland Tower formation near the head of Fairyland Canyon, shot from the Northwest side near sunset in August.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2138
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The Fairyland Tower formation shot from the Northeast side about a half hour closer to sunset in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X1886
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Multicolored fins and hoodoos in Fairyland Canyon, surrounded by
Douglas Fir and Pinyon Pine in the late afternoon near sunset in June.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2113
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Fluorescent hoodoos and fins in Fairyland Canyon in the late afternoon near sunset.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2115
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A spectacular group of red-orange and purplish-pink fins and hoodoos at the
base of Boat Mesa in Fairyland Canyon, late afternoon near sunset in late June.
Red-orange is due to iron oxides in the rock, purplish-pink is manganese oxide.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon at Sunset X2095
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Boat Mesa and the hoodoos below Fairyland Point in the late afternoon near sunset. Tropic Valley is in the distance.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Canyon at Sunset X2097
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The hoodoos at the head of Fairyland Canyon below Boat Mesa in the late afternoon light near sunset.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2139
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A lenticular cloud over a fluorescent group of hoodoos at the head of Fairyland Canyon in the late afternoon before sunset.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2140
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Detail of the fluorescent group of hoodoos at the head of Fairyland Canyon, in the late afternoon before sunset in June. The light actually seems to penetrate some of the hoodoos, giving the impression that some are translucent.
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Bryce Canyon Fairyland Hoodoos at Sunset X2144
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Another angle showing this distinctive group of hoodoos at the head
of Fairyland Canyon, taken in the late afternoon before sunset in June.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Bryce Canyon Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Link to the Fairyland Canyon images:
Fairyland
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Click the display composite above to visit the Queen’s Garden Trail page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Navajo Trail page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Bryce Canyon Landscapes page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Sunrise Point and Sunset Point page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Bryce Canyon Rim Views page
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Click the display composite above to visit the Bryce Canyon Flora and Fauna page
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