Another beautiful crisp spring day in the southern Utah mountains. Everybody was up early to greet the morning and say hello to the horses in the pasture next to us. We spent a leisurely morning relaxing until it was time to board the Hyundai Express for Zion Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm).
Once the kids had their final walk we left camp around 10:30 AM for the drive south on US-89 to the Mt Carmel Junction and US-9 which runs into the park. Hwy 9 is a beautiful entry to the park with several tunnels and great hills of exposed sandstone, remnants of huge sand dunes. The most notable is called Checkerboard Mesa and is only a few miles past the park gate.Before long we passed through a real engineering marvel, the The Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel which is 1.1 miles long. It was blasted and cut in the thick Navajo sandstone during the early 1900's. The task of cutting through 2,000 foot thick sandstone, in those days, was not easy and blasting was used to enlarge the hole and railcars hauled off the debris. On the tunnel's south side, working on the tunnel was not any easy task because the drop off to the canyon below is 800 ft. As we drove through the tunnel we passed several "windows" of light that were cut into the tunnel wall right through to the outside canyon wall. Pretty cool!!
Once through the tunnel, we wound our way down into the canyon following a series of seven switch backs which dropped us about 750 feet to the floor of the canyon and arriving at Canyon Junction where we turned south to the Visitor Center. We tried to park here but couldn't find a spot so we drove 100 yards out of the park and found a spot on the road in front of the Zion Canyon Theater.
From here we walked back into the park to the visitors center and caught the tram that goes into the canyon. The tram makes seven stops in the canyon and we got off at five - Court of the Patriarchs, the Zion Lodge where we had lunch, the Angels Landing, Weeping Rock and the Temple of Sinawava at the head of the canyon.Getting off the shuttle at the Court of the Patriarchs we walked up a short trail to a viewing platform where we could see a trio of similar shaped cliffs. The Three Patriarchs are named: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and were named by Reverend Fisher an early area explorer.
At the Angels Landing we were treated to a view of the Great White Throne, Angels Landing and the Organ three of the most famous landmarks in Zion. The Great White Throne is impressive white topped monolith, rising more than 2400' above the canyon floor. The name, Great White Throne, was given by the same Methodist minister, Frederick Fisher, that named Angels Landing and the Three Patriarchs. Fisher felt that the monolith was magnificent enough to symbolize the throne of God. The white flat mountain he saw to be the back of the throne and Angels Landing and the Organ symbolize the two arm rests.
Our next stop was at Weeping Rock. Diane decided to take a break and sat on a bench while Don, Tina and I made a short hike up to the face of an eroded, bowl-shaped cliff face. This is where water seeps out from the junction between two different sandstone strata (the Navajo and Kayenta layers) creating a year-round spring that nourishes hanging gardens of moss, ferns, grass and wildflowers. The water collects to form a small, tree-lined stream that trickles down the hillside for a short distance before joining the Virgin River as it flows around Big Bend, beneath Angels Landing.
After rejoining the shuttle we continued on to the end of the canyon and the Temple of Sinawava, a vertical-walled natural amphitheater nearly 3,000 feet deep. We walked out to the trail along the Virgin River and spent a half hour just admiring the view. Everywhere you look, shear walls surround you. From here we caught the shuttle back to the Visitors Center and returned to the car for the drive back to Glendale.We were fortunate to have a nice day with temperatures in the canyon around eighty-five but with lots of breezes to keep things cool. And being in a canyon, we were seldom in direct sunlight. After we got home and walked the dogs, Don prepared hot dogs on the grill, Tina made potato salad and we had a picnic dinner. With a long day behind us we decided to watch a movie and head to bed early.
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