One of the most conspicuous things about Bryce Canyon National Parks is the hoodoos. Those tall rock spires found all over Bryce Canyon National Park with names such as "Thor's Hammer", "Sinking Ship", and "Queen Victoria" are all hoodoos. These hoodoos are constantly being sculpted and changed by the forces of water and wind. For example, only a few years ago a portion of the famous "Thor's Hammer" fell off and made it look just a little less like a war hammer. 

   Geologists will tell you that the hoodoos started off as plateaus and gradually eroded into a solid rock wall. From there, the rain would do its work of getting into small cracks and freezing, breaking off one little pice of rock at a time until a large hole is created in the wall. Finally, this large window or hole spreads until the once solid wall becomes two separate pillars. 

   The Paiute Indians who inhabited the Bryce Canyon area long before the Mormon settlers came in had a totally different idea about how the hoodoos got into Bryce Canyon. They believed that there once lived a special type of people called To-when-an-ung-wa, or "The Legend People who lived in Bryce Canyon and were quite irresponsible in the way they treated the land. The Legend People would routinely eat and drink far more than they needed, causing the animals to go hungry and without water. As punishment, they say the Coyote god tricked the Legend People by having them all gather at the floor of Bryce Canyon for a great feast. Once everyone was gathered, the coyote used his powers to turn them all into stone.

   It has been said that, because of this legend about the coyote god, the Indians refused to enter Bryce Canyon, fearing that a curse was still upon the land. At any rate, though there is plenty to find about Indian tribes living all over the Colorado Plateau, there is no evidence at all of any Indians actually living in the area of Bryce Canyon National Park itself.