Provo, UT

This is the first post in a series about visiting Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

The visitor center at Bryce Canyon National Park is pretty impressive, so I thought it deserved the first post. Unlike many visitor centers which serve mainly as gift shops or a place to pick up a park map, this one also included a comprehensive museum about the unique history, geology, wildlife, and landscape of Bryce Canyon. Consider making it your first stop before you begin exploring the park.

One of my first impressions upon seeing Bryce Canyon from Sunrise Point was that the rock formations looked like a crowd of people seated in an amphitheater. Apparently I’m not the only one; here’s the Paiute Legend of Bryce Canyon that was posted at the entrance to the museum:

“Before there were any Indians, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place…Because they were bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding on to others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks…the name of that place is Agka-ku-wass-a-wits (Red Painted Faces).” –Indian Dick, 1936

Reading the legend sparked my interest in the museum (I usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming through this type of thing, but I found this one enlightening). Here you’ll find information about Mormon pioneer Ebeneezer Bryce (for whom the park is named), a display of pioneer tools, several taxidermy displays of park wildlife, and a topographic replica of the park. An exhibit of fossils tells how important they are to learning about the sedimentary layers of the canyon. A huge display board illustrating a geologic cross-section of the Grand Staircase explains how those sedimentary layers turned into rock and how the rock then fractured and shifted into the great plateaus and awe-inspiring formations we see today. Every half hour an informational film (close-captioned) is shown.

The visitor center is your place for park and trail information, backcountry permits–and of course, restrooms–in addition to the usual postcards and souvenirs. Don’t forget to get your National Parks Passport stamped here, too.

The visitor center is located at the north end of the park, just inside entrance on State Road 63. It’s open every day except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.