There are few places in the country, and the world for that matter, that exhibit the beauty and grandeur of God’s creation more apparently than the appropriately named Zion National Park in Utah. The name Zion itself evokes images of God’s kingdom on Earth.
First preserved in 1909 under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument and later becoming a national park in 1918, Zion has had a sparse history of human habitation making among the most untouched national parks in the nation, save for the modern roads and tunnel paved into the canyon floor. The earliest evidence of human occupation dates to around A.D. 500 by the Anasazi and Fremont people but by the year 1200, the canyon had been abandoned and received only passing visits by Paiute foragers in search of food.
European exploration of the area was very rare, with the only two significant parties passing through the area, but not the canyon itself, including the Dominguez Expedition in search of an overland route from Santa Fe, NM to Monterrey, CA. The other noteworthy expedition into the area of Zion was a group of 16 men lead by Jedediah Smith, one of the many fur traders that explored the remote reaches of the Western U.S.It was only after the first land survey was conducted in 1908 that it garnered any significant attention and the spectacular nature of the terrain prompted it’s immediate preservation under the newly formed National Parks System a hundred years ago.
I visited Zion a year ago on a whirlwind spring break road trip that took us from Kansas City to Los Angeles and back again, stopping over in places like Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. Of all of those places, including the Grand Canyon, I saw nothing more spectacular on that trip than Zion. That is where a group of friends and myself will be traveling to this spring break to spend 5 days and 4 nights, as opposed to the hour or so that was spent on my last visit.
Due to the remoteness of the location and our projected unavailability of electricity and Internet service, I won’t be cataloguing every day of our experience as it happens, but will instead provide updates on the trip before we leave and then provide a day by day account of our experiences upon my return. On our way out, there remains a remote possibility of reaching Bryce Canyon, but our trek is most likely to focus on the southernmost reaches of the Utah canyon country and the sweeping panoramas of Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona before traveling back through Colorado on our way home.
I’ll take a lot of pictures and share the best here, but I can assure you that this starving granola will enjoy a great feast as he in the company of good friends takes in the sights, sounds, and smells of Zion National Park.
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Sources:
History of Zion National Park: http://www.zion.national-park.com/info.htm#his
Picture: http://www.usatourist.com/slideshows/southwest/images/Zion%20National%20Park%201.jpg