Sinking Ship

Sinking Ship is one of the named rock formations visible from Sunrise Point in Bryce Canyon National Park, standing alongside Boat Mesa against the backdrop of the Pink Cliffs and the distant Aquarius Plateau. Its layers are tilted at roughly a 30-degree angle - the visible result of the Paunsaugunt Fault, the same fault line that runs along the park's eastern edge.

The geology behind the name

• The uptilted rock marks where the iron-oxide-colored limestone of the Pink Cliffs meets the older marine shales of the Grey Cliffs below
• That tilt, caused by movement along the Paunsaugunt Fault, is what gives Sinking Ship its listing, prow-like profile
• Best viewed looking northeast from Sunrise Point, often paired with sunrise photography of the same view

You don't hike to Sinking Ship - it's a formation you look out at from the rim, and one of the clearer visible examples of the faulting that shaped Bryce Canyon in the first place.