Red Ledge RV Park, Kanarraville, UT;
April 27 to June 9, 2014
As with the Grand Canyon, Zion was
formed by wind, rain, and shifting tectonic plates. The area has been
occupied by humans for thousands of years – the first residents
racked mammoths and camels. With climate change, these animals died
out 8,000 years ago. As resources diminished, people adjusted to suit
their locations. One desert culture, evident here still, evolved over
the next 1,500 years as a community of farmers known as Ancestral
Pueblans. In Zion, they had a rare desert combination of terraces on
which to grow food, a river for water, and an adequate growing
seasonn.
In the early 1860's, early Mormon
pioneers came to the region and struggled through flash floods and
droughts to eventually build successful communities.
There are four access roads to the
canyon: Kolob Canyon, Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, Kolob Terrace Road,
and Zion Canyon Scenic Drive.
The Zion Canyon Scenic Drives is the
most popular part of the canyon and is closed to private vehicles
most of the year due to impact of excessve traffic on this
one-of-a-kind landmark. As in several of the other iconic National
Parks, there are shuttle buses that take visitors from stop to stop.
The drive winds around the base of
mountains – the lowest evelavation in Zion is 3,600' and the
highest peak is 8,700 feet. The canyons were all sculpted from raw
rock by the Virgin River and it has left enormous cliffs that have
biblical names such as The Great White Throne, Court of Patriarchs,
the West Temple. It's a show-stopper, to be sure.
There are a good number of hikes that
may be taken, but since many of them are over steep trails, slippery
rocks, and thousand foot drops, we decided to forego them in favor
of staying healthy. We may try some of the easier ones the next time
we visit.
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