Zion is a jumble of rocks and stone plateaus riddled with deep canyons and bizarre tunnels. And it’s all painted in different colors: pink, orange, red, emerald, and blue. In this fantastic place, it’s hard to believe that you’re on planet Earth.
The main attraction is Zion Canyon, 24 km long and up to 800 m deep, washed by the northern arm of the Virginia River in Navajo sandstones colored reddish and bronze.
A peculiar feature of the canyon is that, unlike other places on the Colorado Plateau, the layers are not located horizontally, but at a great slope due to the geological stresses and bends that occurred before the plateau rose.
The canyon area is isolated from automobiles, so you can view the Martian landscape by taking one of the many hiking trails.
The summit of Horse Ranch Mountain, at 2,660 meters, is the highest point in Zion Park. The lowest point, 1,120 meters, is on the 1,500-meter ascent of Cole Pitts Wash.
A common phrase states that it’s hard to surprise people with anything these days. People are satiated with information and flashy pictures. But Nature is a great architect, her imagination is inexhaustible, and every time she is able to present something to the observer, from which he freezes in awe. There is no doubt that one of such unrivaled places on Earth is the Zion National Park in the United States.
Zion National Park is located in the southwestern part of the United States, within the state of Utah. Here, in an area of about 600 km², the Virginia River has dug deep, extraordinarily winding and spectacular gorges for many thousands of years. The river succeeded in this work only because the territory of the state is formed by loose, powerful layers of sandstone that have a rich yellow color. Moreover, these layers are not arranged horizontally, but ramp up at a big angle, sometimes almost vertically. This gives the gorges a special look: it seems from the side as if the river-keeper cut with a monstrous knife a layered cake, having crumpled up its sides beforehand.
The area got its name, Zion, in the mid-19th century, when the Mormon Europeans came to these wild lands. One of them, Isaac Beween, is said to have given the extraordinary terrain its present name (in Hebrew the city of Jerusalem has several names, one of which is Zion). True, a little later, an official geographical expedition gave the area the name Mukuntuvip, and under this name there even arose a national park (in 1909). But the long name didn’t stick with the people, and the old name eventually remained, just as the National Park, one of the oldest in America, remains to this day.
Zion National Park is a fantastic combination of deepest gorges, steep cliffs, and brown, as if ethereal hills. Here, on a relatively small piece of land, mountains and plains, steppes and forests, sand and water meet.
Now, thanks to the efforts of the authorities and the park’s management, there is a well-developed tourist infrastructure here. Buses go from the nearest town, Springdale, to the park all the time. The influx of tourists is so great that in the dry and warm season of the year the movement of personal vehicles on the territory of Zion is forbidden, you need to leave the car at the equipped parking lots and further move in tourist shuttles.
The park has many amazing sand arches, which are among the largest in the world. They were made by water in the sandstone, but there are also man-made arches. A highlight of the park for many years is the longest tunnel built to straighten the way to America’s other two other famous canyons, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon. These grand geological structures are relatively close to Zion. The tunnel is special not only because it is 1,712 meters long, but also because the builders have intentionally made huge arched windows in its walls, through which you can see far below the narrow bottom of the canyon.