Geology
Hoodoos
6 destinations along 6 roads
A hoodoo is a spire the erosion left behind — a column of harder rock still standing while the softer stone around it washes away. But the shape is a form, not a rock type. Bryce Canyon holds the largest gathering on earth, frost-wedged from soft Claron limestone by the freeze and thaw of some two hundred nights a year; Cedar Breaks and Red Canyon are cut from the same red beds. Chiricahua's pinnacles are welded volcanic ash, and Cathedral Gorge's are barely rock at all — pale clay from a drained lakebed. One silhouette, three ways to carve it.