The Bryce Amphitheater
Silent City
Ranks of fins and spires below the rim south of Sunset Point: one wall from afar, many rows up close.
MeasuredThis page explains a named landscape feature. A model position is not an established trail, parking place or permission to approach the formation.
Conditions & official access sources · Compare walking distance and climb
DerivedSilent City: the 2018 USGS lidar surface, seen at an angle from above. The site’s collection has no modern photograph of this place; surface color and lighting are drawn, not measured.What you’re looking at
NPS identifies Silent City below the rim south of Sunset Point. From Inspiration Point its dense walls fill the view to the north; from Bryce Point, it lies beside Sunset Point.1,2,3
What looks like one wall from a distance resolves into rows of fins and spires separated by lower passages. A section across the 2018 terrain rises and falls with each row; it shows the shape of the upper surface, not the rock layers inside.4,1
Silent City is an area, not a single surveyed object. Maurice Cope photographed it from the rim; the museum catalog dates his negatives only broadly, between 1920 and 1940.5,6
Turn it in 3D
Turn the surface, cut a section across it, and compare the aerial color with the laser returns the aircraft recorded. The 3D view loads only when you open it.
Then and now
Early photographs of the same ground. They record a view, not a measured change; the camera positions are not known exactly.
Best light
DerivedCalculated sunlight on the 2018 terrain at 09:00 and 17:00 Mountain Daylight Time on 20 March, the equinox. Sun bearing and height are computed; the surface color is drawn, and clouds, haze and trees are not modeled.
Plates
DerivedAlong, then across: paired plan and oblique views with an equal-scale section. Full drawing (SVG, 4.6 MB)
DerivedThe wall illusion: paired plan and oblique views with an equal-scale section. Full drawing (SVG, 4.6 MB)
Living things here
Habitats: Rocky breaks & rim. The rows stand in the exposed breaks of the amphitheater, which NPS notes are often sparsely wooded, with trees adapted to difficult growing sites.11,12
Living Bryce entries for these habitats:
Care
NPS asks visitors to stay on trails, avoid climbing hoodoos, leave natural objects where they are and avoid feeding or disturbing wildlife. Walking toward a hoodoo’s base can disturb the clay-rich slopes that help protect its foundations, so enjoy the formations from established trails and overlooks.9,10
Read without 3D
The 3D view covers a square about 512 metres on a side. Heights in the lidar returns range from 2,294 m (7,525 ft) to 2,487 m (8,161 ft). The surface is built from what an aircraft could see from above: undersides, overhangs and narrow gaps are not reconstructed.
Data and sources
Datasets
Sources
- National Park Service · Inspiration Point
- National Park Service · Sunset Point · 2026-08-15
- National Park Service · Bryce Point · 2024-10-10
- USGS data; public Entwine organization maintained by Hobu · USGS 3DEP LiDAR Point Clouds · 2018 acquisition; LAS published 2019
- US Geological Survey · The National Map Geographic Names — Landforms
- Bryce Canyon National Park Museum and Archives · Nitrate negative of Silent City from the rim in BRCA. ; BRCA Museum and Archives Image BRCA8875_001_004 ; BRCA 8875
- US Geological Survey · USGS Lidar Point Cloud UT Southern QL1 2018 12SUG9562 LAS 2019 metadata · 2019-06-03
- USDA FPAC / Farm Service Agency · USDA conterminous US NAIP imagery service · 2024 Utah acquisition, exact flight dates per crop
- National Park Service · Protect the Hoodoos · 2018-10-16
- National Park Service · Hiking · 2024-10-11
- National Park Service, Bryce Canyon · Plants · April 30, 2023
- National Park Service, Bryce Canyon · Limber Pine · March 3, 2025