Utah: the power of hoodoo north america news archive nz herald nz herald news

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Utah: The power of hoodoo By Mark Meredith Spooky rock formations make Mark Meredith think of lost souls, doomed to crumble under a harsh Utah sky.

A steep switchback trail on the Navajo Loop near the claustrophobic Silent City in Bryce Canyon National Park. Photo / Mark Meredith

"Isn't God's creation wonderful?" He turned around and fixed me with an earnest gaze. "Absolutely," I gasped, panting. "Hey, man. Do you need some water?" I absolutely did. Like a fool I had embarked on the Navajo Loop, one of many self-guided hikes available in Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park, without packing water in my rucksack. "Drink at least a litre every 1-2 hours" advised the park's newspaper, the Hoodoo, named after the extraordinary pinnacles of rock that characterise Bryce Canyon. At Bryce, which sits at more than 2700m, altitude plays a major part in making any physical activity quite exhausting. Apparently, at this height, your lungs only receive 70 per cent of the oxygen they are used to and I was puffing like an old steam train. It was late in the day when, on the spur of the moment, I'd said farewell to my family, who preferred to stay on the rim, and headed into the canyon to enter the weird world among the hoodoos before darkness set in. The trouble with canyons is that once you head down you have to climb up again. I passed people merrily descending the winding trail but many more wheezing their way up slowly, grim, sweaty faces betraying their pain. Down among the hoodoos I found myself in a landscape reminiscent of a far-flung planet from Star Wars. From above, Bryce Canyon is beautiful in a bizarre way, but below, the pinnacles and spires seem to take on a life of their own, quite menacing in the way strange shapes lean and crowd over you and walls appear to be closing in. You feel very small.

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The Paiute Indians, who once inhabited the canyon, have a history that says the hoodoos are the "Legend People" who the trickster god Coyote turned to stone because they were bad.


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