Zion National Park

Zion, like Yosemite, is a National Park where you tour the valley and look up at spectacular cliffs. In the case of Zion, most of the cliffs are various shades of red. This part of the US is referred to as the Grand Staircase where the top layer of rock in the Grand Canyon is the bottom layer of rock, in terms of height, in Zion Canyon. The top layer of Zion is the bottom layer of Brice Canyon (see next blog entry). The rock formations in Zion all have biblical names via a Baptist preacher travelling with a Mormon guide (Mormons were the first non-Native to inhabit the area as directed by missions). Zion's gathered waters, known as the Virgin River, traverse the Mojave Desert lands and join the Colorado river in Lake Mead before completing their Pacific-bound journey. Zion, Brice, etc. are all on the Colorado Plateau which is about 9-10,000 feet above sea level. There is lots of rain and wind and ice during the year on the plateau which work the cracks, loosening grains and widening fractures, eroding and creating great canyons.....water flows and solid rock melts into cliffs and towers.

The road out of Zion, hwy 9, to Mt. Carmel is really spectacular with switchbacks and a 1-mile long tunnel (Bev had to remove her cool shades). There are 3 windows in the tunnel offering amazing vistas of the canyon rock formations.