Bryce Canyon is one of the smallest, but also, I believe, the most scenic of the national parks on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah. The Grand Canyon will make you stare in awe at the vast chasm, 10 miles wide (16km), Arches boasts the largest number of natural stone arches anywhere in the world, and Zion offers a daring and fun walk to the top of Angels Landing.

But no sight will take your breath away quite like the view from Bryce Point, of a magical fairytale castle composed of mushroom-shaped hoodoos, pointed spires, and rows upon rows of pink cliffs bathed in the morning sun. This otherworldly labyrinth, snuggled into the oval shape of the Bryce Amphitheater is marvellous, in its entirety.

But then, each bulbous column in itself is a masterpiece of weathered rock, sculpted by millions of years of erosion. The scenery changes constantly throughout the day as the changing light bathes the columns in ever different vibrant orange and pink hues, and a thousand slender shadows grow shorter and longer, thinner and thicker with the course of the sun underneath a pale blue sky.

Change is the common thread of Bryce Canyon, which at an elevation of up to 9,100 feet (2780m) above sea level experiences significant temperature fluctuations between night and day, a phenomenon called frost wedging or ice wedging. On roughly 180 days a year, warm daytime temperatures melt the snow and ice, allowing water to seep into cracks and crevices. Come nighttime, and that water freezes again, expanding in the process, causing fissures and cracks and toppling even the most beautiful pinnacles.

I was glad not to witness any hoodoos crumble by this invisible force of weathering and erosion, thinking that the maze was perfect and that any change would be for the worse. It took me some time to realize that it was erosion in the first place that formed the hoodoos and that, unlike human-caused destruction, the changes caused by nature in Bryce were creating something new that was equally beautiful or even more so.

The Bryce Amphitheater with its fine-grained pink hoodoos, cliffs, and columns sits at the top of what is called the Grand Staircase, an area described as “the world’s most complete sequence of sedimentary rocks” that was once submerged under an inland sea and has layers of rock more than 200 million years old.

If you have the time, you can visit the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce one after the other, climbing the giant steps of the Grand Staircase, so to speak. You won’t perceive the area as a staircase, of course, but I have never been more fascinated by plain, old rock than I was in Utah’s national parks.

Hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park is very very popular and unlike the Grand Canyon, descending below the rim to the floor of Bryce Canyon on well-maintained hiking trails with fairly gentle elevation gains is a very doable endeavour for most people. The most popular hikes in Bryce Canyon are the Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden Trail, as they are both short but very scenic trails and can be combined into a slightly longer 3-mile (5km) loop. Even the longer, more challenging Fairyland and Queens Garden-Peekaboo loops were gentle walks compared to the South Kaibab-Tonto-Bright Angel and Grandview-Tonto-Hance Creek hikes in the Grand Canyon.

If you’re looking for a level, wheelchair-friendly walkway, Bryce doesn’t measure up to the Grand Canyon‘s paved 2.8-mile (4.5km) Hermit Road section of the Greenway Trail, however. The only paved section of the Rim Trail at Bryce Canyon is the 1-mile (1.6km) stretch between Sunset and Sunrise Points.

The desert climate and high elevation make for chilly nights and surprisingly warm days. Take plenty of layers to prepare for these temperature changes – especially when you visit in summer and head out for a night walk, which you absolutely should do as Bryce Canyon has some of the world’s darkest night skies and spectacular stargazing. Don’t forget to take a headlamp.

If you’re not an enthusiastic hiker, the best way to see the canyon is to follow the Scenic Drive as it traces the plateau rim for 18 miles (29 km). There are plenty of opportunities to pull out at scenic viewpoints and follow short trails to the rim for great views of the canyon.