PHANTOM IMAGES OF BRYCE CANYON

Bryce Canyon National Park is famed for its numerous stone columns, called hoodoos. Less well known is that Bryce Canyon produces many phantom images, apparently the result of light and shadows. Those phantom images are not permanent. If you find one, you probably will never see it again in your later visits. Some phantom images just disappears by changing the viewing angle, but some are more durable. The place within Bryce Canyon that produces more fantastic phantom images is called “Fairy Land”. It is a much smaller area than the main amphitheater, and hoodoos there are much less orderly than the ones in the main amphitheater. The main amphitheater, though still produce some phantom images, their number is far fewer and the qualities inferior than the ones from Fairy Land.

The pictures of phantom images listed here are all taken from the still picture mode of a palm camcorder made by Panasonic (SDR-S7p). This camcorder is a Standard Definition machine, so its still picture mode has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The camcorder has a lens with 10x zoom range. The pictures are only “sharpened” by the open source photo editing software GIMPS, and nothing else have been done on them.

The Map A map to show the location of "Fairy Land" and the main amphitheater of Bryce Canyon.
Picture 1 In this picture there are numerous phantom images. At positions, A1, A2, and A3 there are three stones respectively. One may find that those three stones resemble some thing, but those imagined shapes are not what we call "phantom images". Please look closely at the position Aa, just at the right of A1. There is a side portrait of a man with bushy hair, slight bear, a crooked nose and wears a white hat like the one Pope usually wears. That side portrait cannot be made by one stone; it is the result of light and shadow at that moment. That is an example of a "phantom image" created at "Fairy Land". Looking at the position Bb, there is a phantom image of a boy, two arms up dangling from the cliff. The image is about one-sixth of the height of the whole picture. At the position Cc, there is a round head that may be called a "Pumpkin Head", and at the position Dd, a face with two big eyes popping out. In a less impressive mode, at Ee there is a long female face, and at Ab some may claim to see a shape of a Poodle.
Picture 1(a) This picture was taken from a slightly different angle from Picture 1. Three stones, A1, A2, and A3 are, of course, still there. The side portrait of a man at the right of A1 in the previous picture is gone. Instead another face of a man at the left of A1, still labeled as Aa in this picture, has appeared. At the position Bb, the phantom image of the "dangling boy" has disappeared, though we can still make out where one arm and one leg in the previous picture are located. The "Pumpkin Head" at Cd, the face with two popping out eyes at Dd, the long face of a woman at Ee are still there. The shape of the Poodle now has shifted toward the left of Ab.
Picture 2 This is another interesting picture taken at Fairy Land. At position Aa, an old man with white hair, white bear and something on his head, is sitting on a chair. Now at the position Bb, what do we see? A short hair beauty with something around her lips. We would like to point out the bright twin columns at the position Cc that will serve as a land mark later on. Of course, there is a whitish face lying near the foot of the left column.
Picture 2a This picture was taken by walking toward left from the scene of Picture 2. The old man on a chair is now out of the picture, and the short hair beauty is now at the right portion of the picture. Let us concentrate on the relative position of the short hair beauty with respect to the crack on the wall and to the bright twin columns on the back ground. The position of the short hair beauty has shifted slightly toward the left with respect to the crack on the wall, indicating that the image was located some distance behind the wall. However, the image of the short hair beauty has not changed position with regard to the twin columns. This implies that the image is formed not very away from the twin columns. Also it is interesting to note that at the left hand edge, the side portrait of the bushy hair man, discussed in Picture 1 is visible again. This image of the short hair beauty has appeared in more pictures at varying positions in the frame, but are not shown here.
Picture 2b The setting of Fairy Land is as follows: Viewers are looking toward east into the the valley that is much smaller in size than the main amphitheater of Bryce Canyon National Park. The pictures from 1 to 2a that have been discussed so far were all taken around 7:45 pm on a clear day in the middle of October when the sun was about to set behind the hill at the back of the viewing point. Under such a lighting condition, the images on the poor resolution LCD screen of the Panasonic pocket camcorder were barely visible. Thus the pictures posted so far were not composed, but just random shots. The phantom images were all uncovered after wards when the pictures were examined. Many years ago when we visited Fairy Land at the middle afternoon of a summer day, two members of our party saw, with naked eyes, an elaborate picture of a little ballerina making the curtain call. After touring the main amphitheater on the way out, we revisited Fairy Land, but the little ballerina was gone. At a few successive visits to Bryce Canyon National Park, we always dropped by Fairy Land trying to find the little ballerina agian, but to no avail. That time equipped with a digital camcorder, many pictures were taken randomly with the hope to find the little ballerina, but instead many other phantom images have been found as reported here. The next morning after watching the sun rise at Bryce Point at the ridge of the main amphitheater, we stopped at Fairy land again and took some pictures. That time the camera was directly facing the eastern sun, nothing spectacular was expeced. However, Picture 2b as posted at the right reveals interesting aspects. The scene in the picture is clearly comparable with the scene in Picture 2. At the position Cc, the tall stone column is without any doubt the old man on the the chair in Picture 2. In the washed out portion by sun light, we can still trace out a dim contour of the face of the old man. The wall at the fore front is exactly the wall where the "Short Hair Beauty" is lurking out in Picture 2. At the position Aa we can even identify the crack on the wall to pin point the exact position of the image of "Short Hair Beauty". At Bb the twin column from Picture 2 are there, and at its foothill there extends another distant wall. The image of "Short Hair Beauty" was created by the projection of light on this distant wall. Some bush visible at the corner of the wall and the nearby stone must be the thing that obscure the lip of "Short Hair Beauty".
Photo 3 At the position Aa near the left edge of the picture, there is some one with a long nose looking into some thing behind the wall. The wall is exactly the same wall above which the "Short Hair Beauty" appeared in Picture 2. However, in Picture 2 this little detective is not visible. Only when zoomed in, he becomes visible in this picture. What is the detective nosing about? Some bones behind the wall?
Photo 4 This picture is deliberately over sharpened. At the position Aa, there is a hiker. The hiker wears a hat and carries a stick. The size of the hiker is as large as a hoodoo.
Photo 5 At the upper left corner of the picture, there are three little ones playing on the top of a cliff.
Photo 6 Near the upper edge of the picture there is a bright image. Some sees an angel, and others see as an owl. What is your interpretation?
Photo 7 At the left portion of the picture, there is a bright image of a fellow sitting on something. What is he doing? Playing piano?
Photo 8 From this picture and below, they were taken from the main amphitheater, not at Fairy Land. The character of the images has changed from the ones from Fairy Land. The images from the main amphitheater are mostly due to the light shining on stone columns, so are more durable than the phantom images from Fairy Land. This picture and many below were taken at Sunset Point around the sun set time. At the right portion of the picture, there stands an old man of bold head and white bear. The old man carries the head of a monster. At the left portion of the picture, there is a warrior with an animal head, carrying a long stick.
Photo 9 There stands a fairy king with a bear at one side and a character like "Woody Woodpecker" at the other side. Toward the left portion of the picture, there sits a big fat one, either a bear or a lion.
Photo 10 Here comes a float in a parade, with a Collie at the rear.
Photo 11 A marble statue of an old bald man with bear. This figure should be there all the the time.
Photo 12 This picture was taken the following morning at the sun rise time at Bryce Point. I call this picture "The March".