A Few Views from Zion National Park

Red Rock and Rainbow

Red Rock and Rainbow © 2010 Bo Mackison

After our visit to Cedar Break National Monument, we traveled a couple of hours south to Zion National Park. We saw a rainbow as a passing storm system heading away from us.

Hiking in Zion

Hiking in Zion © 2010 Bo Mackison

With the elevations in Zion ranging from 3,600 to over 8,700 feet, the park is home to many habitat communities.  There are species from the Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range, and the Mojave Desert, and these all blend to create a place for more than 900 species of plants, from riparian (river) plants to desert plants.

Sunset Glow, Incoming Storm

Sunset Glow © 2010 Bo Mackison

Zion National Park is on the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The many layers of rock have been pushed upward and tilted to form a geological feature called Escalante, or the Grand Staircase. This amazing line of cliffs stretches from Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon. One of the large steps stretches from Bryce Canyon, the bottom step, to Zion, the top step. Another step rises from Zion, the bottom step, to the Grand Canyon, the top of the step.

Cliff Tree

Cliff Tree © 2010 Bo Mackison

In 2009, President Obama declared much of Zion as a Natural Wilderness Area. According to Congressional Guidelines, a wilderness area is, in part, defined as:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Red Rocks in Zion

 Zion

Zion Scape © 2010 Bo Mackison

A few more photographs of Zion National Park before we leave Utah and head into northern Arizona.

Zion NP

Layers Of Zion Rock © 2010 Bo Mackison

Zion has eight layers of sandstone, some as old as two-hundred-million years. The entire park is covered with red rock, deep winding canyons, desert-scapes, mesas, and buttes making this area in Southern Utah a spectacular vision.

Zion Desert Scape II

Zion Desert Scape © 2010 Bo Mackison

Our weather was overcast, sometimes rainy, sometimes the clouds opened just enough to let a bit of blue peek through, but since we were only in the park one night and one day, we had to enjoy the scenery with the weather as it was.

Zion Red Rock

Summit Trees © 2010 Bo Mackison

I love this line of trees on the ledge of the rocks.

Checkerboard at Zion

Checkerboard Mesa © 2010 Bo Mackison

Checkerboard Mesa is a mass of orange and brown slickrock. The huge rock towers more than 900 feet above the Zion-Mt Carmel Highway. It gets its name because it has the appearance of a huge checkerboard with vertical and horizontal fissures carved into the rock from top to bottom.

Next: Glen Canyon Dam and NRA.