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A row of hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Hoodoos Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Hoodoos are tall thin spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins and badlands. They are composed of soft sedimentary rock, and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. In common usage, the difference between hoodoos and pinnacles or spires is that hoodoos have a variable thickness often described as having a "totem pole-shaped body." A spire, on the other hand, has a smoother profile or uniform thickness that tapers from the ground upward. Hoodoos are most commonly found in the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau and in the Badlands regions of the Northern Great Plains (both in North America). While hoodoos are scattered throughout these areas, nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park. Walt Disney Imagineers notably based the design of the popular Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction around a series of hoodoos, albeit ones constructed out of steel and concrete. Geology purists note that only a tall formation should be called a hoodoo; any other shape is called a 'hoodoo rock'.

Hoodoos range in size from that of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-story building. Formed in sedimentary rock, hoodoo shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colors throughout their height. Good examples of hoodoos are found at Bryce Canyon National Park, located in the U.S. state of Utah (see geology of the Bryce Canyon area).

Hoodoos east of Drumheller, Alberta

• National Park Service: Bryce Canyon National Park: Nature and Geology - Hoodoos (adapted public domain text)

• Göreme
• Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico

• Hoodoos (Erdpyramiden - demoiselles coiffées) world-wide

• DeCourten, Frank. 1994. Shadows of Time, the Geology of Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon Natural History Association.
• Kiver, Eugene P., Harris, David V. 1999. Geology of U.S. Parklands 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 522-528.
• Sprinkel, Douglas A., Chidsey, Thomas C. Jr., Anderson, Paul B. 2000. Geology of Utah's Parks and Monuments. Publishers Press: 37-59