Bryce Canyon National Park

3.4

A national park in southern Utah known for its tall, thin orange rock pillars

proper noun

: Parque Nacional Bryce Canyon

We watched the sunrise from Bryce Canyon National Park, where the rock formations glowed in the early light.

Examples

Millions of tourists visit Bryce Canyon National Park every year to hike among its famous hoodoos.
The unique landscape of Bryce Canyon National Park makes it a popular destination for photographers.
I visited Bryce Canyon National Park last summer.
Have you ever been to Bryce Canyon National Park?
Millions of tourists visit Bryce Canyon National Park every year to hike among its famous hoodoos.
The unique landscape of Bryce Canyon National Park makes it a popular destination for photographers.
We watched the sunrise from Bryce Canyon National Park, where the rock formations glowed in the early light.

Surface Forms

Bryce Canyon National Park main

Morphology

Bryce + canyon + national + park

The meaning ('a national park at/around Bryce Canyon') is directly derivable from the parts: 'Bryce' is a proper name, 'canyon' denotes a steep valley, 'national' indicates state-level designation, and 'park' denotes a protected/recreational area. Even if a learner does not know the specific toponym 'Bryce', the familiar compositional pattern 'X Canyon National Park' makes the referent and function of the place clear to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Bryce Canyon National Park gets its name from a settler named Ebenezer Bryce, and locals called the rocky area a canyon, so the name 'Bryce's canyon' stuck. Today the park keeps that name and is famous for colorful cliffs and tall, thin rock pillars called 'hoodoos', which is why people visit the canyon.