Canyon Puzzles · drawing notes
Original teaching drawings inspired by Bryce. Shapes, coordinates and dimensions are invented for these activities; they do not describe surveyed places or routes. None is a photograph, an airborne dataset, a ground scan, a route or a reconstruction of a particular Bryce landmark.
The activities connect observation skills with Bryce’s layered rocks, sculpted fins and hoodoos. The science references below support the general principles. All exercise numbers, colors, shapes and arrangements are original teaching choices.
Illustrative describes every visual in this pack. A scale bar can give an invented model a precise internal scale without making that model a measured real place. The shadow calculations are mathematically derived from invented inputs; they are not observations or a Sun-position forecast.
| Study | What is specified | What is not established |
|---|---|---|
| 01 · A hill, seen two ways | Each contour is 10 model units higher than the last. The unmarked summit is just inside the 40-unit loop. Profiles are schematic. | Close contour spacing means a steeper slope when the contour interval and map scale are the same. |
| 02 · One line, one height | Dots sit exactly on the contours. Heights are invented model units, with a 10-unit interval. | A contour connects equal elevations. Its shape is not a ruler. |
| 03 · Look north, read left | This is a plan view, with north at the top. Use the lettered centers; all three pillars are visible. | A north arrow describes the map. Left and right belong to the viewer. |
| 04 · Hidden behind a neighbor | Use a parallel (orthographic) view: sight lines run due east. Compare centers, not widths or whether a taller top remains visible. | One view cannot show every surface. An overlap is not evidence that the hidden object is absent. |
| 05 · Borrow the scale bar | This is a side-on scale drawing with equal horizontal and vertical scale. The dimension is invented, not a measured Bryce hoodoo. | Use the scale relationship, not a ruler on your screen. |
| 06 · Bigger on paper | A and B show the same invented ridge. Both are uniformly scaled, with no cropping or added measurements. | A bar scale survives uniform resizing when it resizes with the drawing. |
| 07 · The oldest goes first | These four sedimentary layers are undisturbed and have not been overturned. Letters identify invented layers, not named Bryce formations. | Relative time tells us before and after; it does not supply a date. |
| 08 · The missing middle | The matching A and C layers have already been correlated. Both records are upright. No other evidence about B is available. | An incomplete record can support multiple explanations. Keep them open until evidence distinguishes them. |
| 09 · Find the light | The diagram is north-up, on level ground, with one distant light source. No calendar date or time of day is implied. | Direction can be inferred from a shadow only within stated lighting and surface assumptions. |
| 10 · A longer reach | Each pillar is vertical and 6 model units tall, on level ground. Angles are measured above the horizon; rays are parallel within each scene. | A lower light produces a longer shadow on level ground. Real slopes can change the result. |
| 11 · Look, then interpret | This original drawing has no scale or field measurements. Its three bands are visual labels, not identified rock formations. | Separate what is shown, what is inferred and what has been measured. |
| 12 · Can this source see it? | This is a desk exercise about source choice. The scan described in option B is hypothetical; no real scan is supplied in this pack. | Match the evidence to the question. A beautiful reconstruction cannot fill a measurement gap by appearance alone. |
SVG drawings use a 640 × 460 view box, with x increasing right and y down. They have no geographic coordinates, vertical datum or field resolution. The plan exercises use east/north model coordinates stated in the text. The scale exercises state their own units. Contours and rock layers are separate concepts: a height contour is not a geological contact.
The public puzzle catalogue, source ledger and vector component module can be reused with their evidence notices. Every figure includes a title and a full text description. Print and interactive editions share one catalogue.
References checked October 2, 2026. Factual reading only: no agency photographs, maps, scans, logos or diagrams have been copied into this pack. A government website is not a blanket media license. Source links open only when you choose them.
U.S. Geological Survey · retrieved 2026-10-02
Contours connect equal elevations; closer spacing indicates steeper slope; a contour interval is a height difference. Scale exercises use original arithmetic, not a copied map.
Factual reference only. No text passage, map, photograph or agency symbol copied.
National Park Service, Geologic Resources Division · retrieved 2026-10-02
Relative deposition order in an undisturbed sedimentary sequence. The exercise explicitly excludes overturned layers.
Factual reference only. No source diagram or photograph copied.
National Park Service · retrieved 2026-10-02
Gaps in a rock record may reflect erosion and/or nondeposition. Only this general principle is used; Grand Canyon chronology is not transferred to Bryce.
Factual reference only. No third-party photographs or diagrams copied.
National Park Service, Bryce Canyon National Park · retrieved 2026-10-02 · page updated 2021-09-04
Bryce context: sediment deposition, weathering and erosion, frost wedging and formation of openings and pillars. No rate, age or dimensions are assigned to the invented diagrams.
Factual reference only. None of the page's individually credited media is reused.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center · retrieved 2026-10-02
A low Sun gives a long shadow from a vertical object. The two numerical shadow cases are original idealized trigonometry, not an ephemeris.
Factual reference only. No NASA media copied.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day · retrieved 2026-10-02 · published 2007-06-03
A shadow projects away from the Sun; the exercise uses only that geometric principle.
Factual reference only. The credited photograph is not copied or traced.
BCC Canyon Puzzles pack · created 2026-10-02
Invented dimensions, coordinates, shapes, orthographic projections, arithmetic, evidence-card premises and answer derivations.
Original BCC teaching assets, authored for this pack; no third-party media or dataset. Not an agency product or measured reconstruction.
Original derivations are stated in each answer key and in the catalogue’s model inputs.
The pack does not provide evidence of a ground scan of Thor’s Hammer. A real scan would need documented access, scale, coverage and uncertainty. Activities can be completed at a desk; they do not ask visitors to approach cliffs, leave established routes, climb formations or collect specimens.
No agency endorsement or professional scientific review is claimed. Browser and print checks establish local usability, not physical-device or classroom validation. No account, analytics, submissions, external runtime service or automatic audio is used.