Bryce Canyon National Park Photo Workshop

By Jeff Insel

This was a fun and interesting four day photography workshop. The National Park pamphlet calls Bryce Canyon “Poetry in Stone” – an accurate description as any. The group met at Bryce Canyon the evening before the workshop and we carpooled each day into the park. As with most of the Arizona Highway PhotoScapes workshops we spent most of our time doing sunrise and sunset photo shoots to catch the great light throughout this amazing park, consisting of incredible cliffs and the bulbous columns called hoodoos.

View from Rainbow Point

The mornings were cold – below freezing temperatures so it required everyone to be bundled up in layers. The temperatures rose with the sun while we continued to photograph with the morning light. The last morning we had snow falling until the sun popped up.

Sunrise at Rainbow Point

Midday was spent resting or uploading photos for afternoon critique. Since we stayed at the Best Western just outside the park we were only minutes from the many park viewpoints. Bryce Canyon also has a multitude of trails to hike throughout. One popular hike is the Navajo Trail that has steep switchbacks descending into the hoodoos – and another steep ascending trail to get out as the two photos below demonstrate.

Looking down at Navajo Trail
Japanese tourists climb up Navajo Trail

There are also several rock “windows” which are interesting to photograph, such as Natural Bridge, which can be seen just off the main road.

Natural Bridge

The following photos show some of the variety found throughout Bryce Canyon.

White Hoodoo tips
Afternoon light at Sunset Point
Thor’s Hammer
Dead tree park
Sunrise

Jeff Insel is a Photo Guide for Arizona Highways PhotoScapes.