After spending the day in Bryce and the evening nearby, I woke up on Monday, December 4 and made my way to Zion National Park. Zion’s history is really interesting. The landscape and presence of the Virgin River lent itself easily to being farmed, and not just by settlers of European descent. There is evidence of the indigenous people farming on the land as well. In the mid-1800s Mormon settlers came to the area and named the area Zion, a biblical reference, and named many of the features with religious overtones: the Altar of Sacrifice, the Great White Throne, the Three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and Prodigal Son among others.
In 1909 President Taft protected the area and named it the Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1919, Congress raised its protection level and gave it National Park status, but also changed the name to Zion because it was believed that Native names would deter visitors from a place they couldn’t pronounce the name of.
On my trip, I drove in through the East Entrance and stopped to see Checkerboard Mesa, a sandstone mesa that also has erosion and cracks running vertically in addition to the horizontal layers. After stopping to admire the formation, I continued on and stopped to enjoy the 1-mile long Canyon View Trail. The name certainly did not disappoint.
After descending the trail, I continued on the road through the Zion-Mt.Carmel Tunnel, a 1.1 mile long tunnel that when it opened in 1930 was the longest tunnel in the country. Because it was constructed during the Depression and labor was pretty cheap and easy to come by, I don’t think that any such construction would be possible today.
I made my way down the switchbacks and headed north on the road through the park. I stopped to see the Three Patriarch, the Weeping Wall and go on the Riverside Walk along the Virgin River to the end of the Narrows. On the way back I stopped to see the Great White Throne.
I stopped at the temporary Visitor Center in the Museum, because the Visitor Center is undergoing renovations to watch the video about the history of the Park. There was also and exhibit made with the help of a man whose family farmed in the canyon. There were recorded stories that he told about growing up in the canyon.
Then I made my way over the the Watchman Campground and set up camp for the night. I watch the sunset on the Watchman and surrounding formations and thought about going to the Grand Canyon the next day.
