What is a Hoodoo?

Bryce Canyon consists of hundreds of hoodoos of all sizes which surround several giant amphitheaters known as Bryce Canyon. (Bryce is actually not a canyon since it is open on one side.)  Hoodoos are huge columns of rock seemingly reaching to the sky and comprised of many different layers of colored rock.  Bryce is located in the Colorado Plateau, a large area of land formed millions of years ago which straddles UT,NM, AZ and CO and is larger in size than the state of Montana.  This gigantic plateau uplifted hundreds of millions of years ago causing vertical breaks or joints to be created.  As water seeped into these joints erosion occurred and this erosion led to the creation of rivers and canyons revealing.  Over time the erosion exposed layers of limestone, siltstone, dolomite and mudstone. All these different types of rock differ in hardness with the limestone or sandstone the softest and most easily eroded. 

The upper layers are mostly of sandstone which is soft and easily breaks down.  Not just water, but wind and especially ice caused the small cracks and crevices to widen and eventually erode such that these giant columns now called hoodoos were formed.  The hoodoos have strange shapes and a few have been named such as the Queen Victoria Hoodoo shown in another post.  Some look like faces or smoke stacks.  Sometimes the erosion results in large arches or bridges when the erosion occurs at a lower level leaving the upper layers in tact. 

The name actually comes from voodoo since the Spaniards believed that the Native Americans worshipped these extraordinary rocks.  While this worship probably was not true, the name stuck.