Bryce Canyon National Park includes some of the most interesting exposures of the Pink Cliffs formation, whose rocks are among the most colorful of any forming the earth’s crust. The major beauty spots of the area are found where forces of erosion have cut back into the plateau, forming amphitheaters or wide canyons filled with pinnacles and grotesque forms.

Most of the park area, with some 30 miles of Pink Cliffs, can be seen from Rainbow Point, at the southern end of the park. Included in this panorama are such beautiful amphitheaters as Black Birch Canyon, Agua Canyon, and Willis Creek. In addition, there are magnificent views across “the land of the purple sage” to Navajo Mountain, 80 miles to the east, and to the Kaibab Plateau and the Trumbull Mountains to the south, the latter 99 miles distant.

In reality Bryce is not a canyon; rather it is a great horseshoe-shaped bowl or amphitheater cut by water erosion into the Paunsaugunt Plateau and extending down a thousand feet through its pink and white marly limestone. The character of the area is well indicated by the Paiute Indian name, “Unka-timpe-wa-wince-pock-ich,” which is translated as, “red rocks standing like men in a bowl-shaped canyon.” The largest amphitheater is 3 miles long and about 2 miles wide, and is filled with myriads of fantastic figures cut by weathering influences. Its domes, spires, and temples are decorated in all the colors of the spectrum.

The area was reserved as Bryce Canyon National Monument by Presidential proclamation, June 8, 1923. The act of June 7, 1924, authorized its establishment as Utah National Park when certain conditions regarding land acquisition had been met. The act of February 25, 1928, changed the name from Utah National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park and materially increased the size of the area. On September 15, 1928, when all alienated lands within the proposed park area were transferred to the United States, in accordance with the act of June 7, 1924, Bryce Canyon National Park was established. The park now embraces more than 36,000 acres under Federal ownership.

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the areas of the National Park System owned by the people of the United States and administered for them by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. In these areas the scenery and the objects of historic, prehistoric, and scientific interest are carefully preserved and displayed for public enjoyment.