"Permanant Waves"

View High-Resolution Image

"Permanant Waves"

Classic view off Bryce Canyon's east rim, with Sinking Ship Mesa (foreground - inside the park) and Powell Point (background - outside the park). Bryce Canyon National Park lies along the high eastern escarpment of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Its special geological features include the rock chimneys (hoodoos), fins, and windows, (all carved by Nature), into the pink and white Claron Formation. The earliest people in the area arrived approximately 12,000 years ago, but left little record of their existence. At that time, evidence suggests Wooly Mammoths and Saber-toothed cats roamed this area. Paiutes were living throughout the region when the first Europeans arrived. Paiute legend refers to Bryce Canyon as "the ruins of a great city," buried in red mud and now partly excavated, the work of Shin-away, a Paiute demigod of great power. Before there were any Indians, the To-whon-an-ung-wa lived in that place. There were many of them. They were of many kinds - birds, animals, lizards, and such things - but they looked like people. They were not people; they had power to make themselves look that way. Because they were bad, Shin-away turned them all into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks. The name of that place is Angka-kuwass- a-wits ['red-painted faces']". Legends come and go. Not sure what you believe, but I will choose Free Will. May 21, 2010