What are Hoodoos?

The word “hoodoo” means to bewitch, which is what Bryce Canyon’s rock formations surely do.

The hoodoos we are talking about are tall skinny shafts of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins. Hoodoos are most commonly found in the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau and in the Badlands regions of the Northern Great Plains. While hoodoos are scattered throughout these areas, nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park.

In common usage, the difference between Hoodoos and spires is that hoodoos have a variable thickness often described as having a “totem pole-shaped body.”

A spire, on the other hand, has a smoother profile or uniform thickness that tapers from the ground upward.

At Bryce Canyon, hoodoos range in size from that of a human, to heights exceeding a 10-story building.