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Utah: Zion National Park
ZION NATIONAL PARK, an area of 94,888 acres in southwestern Utah, is the best-known example of a deep, narrow, vertically-walled canyon readily accessible for observation. Through much of its course it is about as deep as wide, though in the Narrows it is 2,000 feet deep and less than 50 feet wide. The park area is one of towering walls and steep slopes, which here and there recede into alcoves and amphitheaters, everywhere decorated by broad arches, pilasters, statues, balconies, and towers. Beneath the white and red of the higher walls are the purple, pink, lilac, yellow, blue, and mauve shades in the most brilliant-colored rocks, and the colors shift constantly with the light and seasons. In winter, when the upper reaches are blanketed with snow, the lower walls are by contrast all the more brilliant; in autumn they are a gorgeous backdrop for the yellow and golden foliage of deciduous trees and shrubs on the canyon floor; and in the spring innumerable cascades plunge down the vast escarpments, some of them dropping a sheer thousand feet, colored by their burden of sand, each waterfall sometimes of a different hue from its neighbor.
This is a realm of temples and cathedrals. Some of the names were bestowed by persons who were members of no church, but no other nomenclature would fit: Mountains of stone are called temples, patriarchs, Angels Landing, thrones, and cathedrals. Easter services, held annually in Zion since 1935, attract an ever-increasing number of visitors; the region impels to awe and prayer.
All visitors enter on the canyon floor, and most of them are content with the grandeur that towers above them. The few who climb to the east or west rim, to the summit of Lady Mountain, or even to Angels Landing, get a vista of a far different kind. From the floor, the beholder is walled in by blazing cliffs that rise half a mile in places; from the summits he looks out over a breath-taking landscape, an Aladdin's carpet of wondrous pattern and riotous colors spread far below. On all sides, extending for miles, is a tumultuous ocean of colors, as if a million rainbows had been melted in the bowl of the sky and poured out on the rocks. Light is a potent factor--there is a remarkable difference in looking into the sun or away from it, into canyons where the splendor of daylight is a dazzling glory, or where the shadows deepen and soften the bold tints and blend them into colorful mists. White summits are as bright as clouds under sunlight; red walls are half a mile of solid flame; pink ridges become long burning reefs; and evergreen terraces are luminous in golden haze.
The elevation at Zion Lodge is 4,275 feet; the main mountain tops are West Temple, 7,795 feet; East Temple, 7,110 feet; and the Great White Throne, 6,744 feet. These altitudes provide the Park with a cooler atmosphere in summer than the surrounding section of southern Utah. Compared with desert country roundabout, the streams and cascades, the trailing ferns and flowering plants, the pines and firs, make Zion a multi-colored oasis. Mule deer abound in the park. Bighorn sheep remain on the highest peaks unless driven down by heavy snows. Mountain lions, coyotes, and bobcats leave their tracks after rain or snow. Porcupines, marmots, chipmunks, and squirrels appear as frequently, almost, as the many types of harmless lizards. Bird life includes the forms typical to areas of heavier rainfall with those indigenous to arid and semiarid country.
The sedimentary rocks exposed in Zion are assigned by geologists to the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic era, and to the Eocene or "dawn" epoch of Tertiary time. According to Dr. Herbert E. Gregory, most of the rocks were laid down by water as gravel, sand, mud, and slimy ooze. They have been converted into solid rock by the weight of layers above them and by cementing lime, silica, and iron. Embedded in the rocks are fossil sea shells, fish, trees, snails, and the bones and tracks of land animals. The most conspicuous remains are those of dinosaurs--huge reptiles which so dominated the life of their time that the Mesozoic is known as the "Age of Dinosaurs."
Today, Zion is an area of gorges, cliffs and mesas. From the hard surfaces, softer layers have been stripped by water and wind. The principal canyon, North Fork, was cut by the Virgin River. Originally a shallow valley, it has become a narrow trench between towering walls, but the river follows the same meanders as it did millions of years ago when it was 5,000 feet above the present level. The stream, having nine times the fall of the Colorado River, is still impressively busy, carrying out of the park about 180 carloads of ground rock daily. Adding to the erosive process are rainfall, surface run-off spilling over the high rims, ground water emerging as springs, frost, and growing tree roots, which loosen great slabs, and chemical agencies that weaken the stone. Continuous sapping and undermining have developed alcoves, opened fissures, and spilled blocks from the cliffs upon the conical talus slopes below.
Long ago Zion was the home of a prehistoric people, cliff ruins having been discovered in the Park. The principal ruins are in Parunuweap Canyon, 8 miles from the nearest road, and not accessible to casual visitors. These ancient people "farmed" near the creeks and rivers, raising corn, squash, and melons. Their dwellings, perched high above, like the nests of swallows, gave them protection from marauding enemies.
Zion Canyon was discovered in 1858 by Nephi Johnson, a Mormon pioneer, who rode up the canyon as far as the present Zion Stadium. Three years later Joseph Black explored the region and led farmers and stock-growers into the canyon, where their descendants tilled and grazed the land until it was proclaimed a national park. In 1872 Major Wesley Powell visited the canyon and applied the Indian names, Mukuntuweap to the North Fork of the Virgin River, and Parunuweap to the East Fork. Indians refused to live in the canyon and were fearful of being overtaken by darkness there. This happily provided a sanctuary for the Mormons, who called their small settlement Little Zion. When Brigham Young told them it was not Zion at all, they called it, for a while, Not Zion.
A portion of the area was set aside as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President Taft in 1909. Nine years later the Monument was enlarged by President Wilson and the name changed to Zion. In 1929 the status was changed by act of Congress to that of a national park, and the following year the park was enlarged to its present area.
Source: Utah, a Guide to the State
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