NPS A relatively lush oasis atop the surrounding desert, the Bryce Canyon Recommended Wilderness Area’s varied microclimates protect a diverse community of life. From majestic elk browsing amongst a vast manzanita understory, to peregrine falcons nesting in the crevasses of isolated cliff faces, to Yellow-Bellied Marmots hibernating deep within their burrows, life abounds in the park as predictable shifts in temperature, precipitation, and light signal the continual unfolding of the seasons. When night falls, a nearly pristine dark sky reveals thousands of stars. The Milky Way stretches across the horizon during the summer months, offering one of the most easily accessible views in the continental US. This dark sky serves as an essential resource for protecting the park’s nocturnal wildlife and offers a valued experiential quality to those who witness it. 
NPS What is Wilderness?Wilderness designation is intended to protect and preserve some of America’s most wild public land. It is considered the highest level of conservation protection for federal lands. Areas that possess the qualities of wilderness provide many important benefits, ranging from ecosystem services to recreational opportunities to protecting natural and cultural resources. Wilderness also provides intangible benefits and serves as an essential opportunity for people to practice and seek restraint, awe, humility, and self-reliance in a fast-paced modern society. Wilderness can provide the opportunity to feel connected to something larger than oneself while simultaneously inspiring an awareness of one’s minute role in a vast interconnected ecosystem. Despite the park’s immense popularity, the Bryce Canyon recommended wilderness is no exception. Within minutes of walking from some of the various trailheads along the park’s main road, visitors can find themselves immersed in the natural quiet of the recommended wilderness. Here, one can spend hours to days exploring trails that hug the top of rocky wind-blown ridges, meander through hushed pines, and weave around the base of inaccessible cliff faces. Even without having a direct experience within wilderness, there can still be value in knowing these spaces exist and are being preserved. Many believe wilderness has an intrinsic value that is independent of how it benefits humans. This concept is often referred to as wilderness for wilderness’s sake. Why does the protection of land as wilderness matter to you? 
NPS The Bryce Canyon Recommended WildernessSituated high above the surrounding landscape of South-Central Utah, the Bryce Canyon Recommended Wilderness Area encompasses 20,810 acres of high desert straddling the eastern rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Here, the sweeping plateau abruptly gives way to a series of steep slopes and cliffs that shape the park’s otherworldly amphitheaters as they descend into the vast swaths of mixed conifer forest in the valleys below. Towering white and orange pinnacles, encroaching tunnels of scrub oak, and expansive vistas offer visitors a variety of opportunities to explore and experience the meaning of wilderness. 58% of Bryce Canyon National Park is managed as wilderness. This area primarily consists of the rugged canyons below the eastern rim of the plateau and the park land north of Utah State Route 12. While Bryce Canyon’s wilderness area is not officially designated as wilderness, it was recommended before Congress in 1976. Because of this, in accordance with NPS policy, it must be managed under the standards put forth in the 1964 Wilderness Act. Historic and Ongoing Human ConnectionThe land encompassed by the Bryce Canyon Recommended Wilderness area has evidence of human presence for thousands of years. Tribal elders of the Southern Paiute, Hopi, Zuni, Ute, and Navajo peoples describe ancestral and modern connections to this land, chronicling how their people drew sustenance from the ecosystems of Bryce Canyon. Yet human occupation within the lands presently managed as Bryce Canyon National Park was largely transient prior to European settlement, mainly due to the area's sparse water supply and harsh winter conditions. Related
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Last updated: October 7, 2024