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We woke up late - 7am! Had to get ready, pack the tent and drive to the Visitor's Centre by 8:45am, which we managed to do with 15minutes to spare. Our ranger Mike Large and driver Russ picked us up. Ironically, Mike Large is very small in stature but very much larger than life in personality! He reminds me of the actor Danny Devito. Ranger Mike Large has lived and worked in Zion for 28 years and is quite the character.
In the 1860's, small farms along the river were started by Mormon pioneers. The name Zion was taken from the old testament of the bible to explain the grandeur and safety of the area. Another story says that Brigham Young, the so-called "Mormon Moses" and leader of the movement, arrived in 1868 and got upset that farmers were growing tobacco and said, "this is not Zion". The Mormon legacy lives on as many of the geographical places have biblical names such as West Temple, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (aka The Three Patriarchs). Another Mormon leader, Reverend Fischer, named the Great White Throne and The Organ.
Originally it was set as a national monument in 1909 and in 1919 it was upgraded to a National Park. Zion Lodge is the 1st permanent settlement structure built in the 1920's. The area has very mild winters and many people come here from cooler parts of the States, so the lodge is available year-round. Today, the park is over 240 square miles but only about 15% was seen in the ranger-led tour. The 1-mile tunnel is the No. 1 safety concern - rangers are stationed at both ends as they've had many accidents and deaths there.
"Geology in your face!" is Mike Large's way of describing the area. The Sentinel towers 7000feet above sea level which broke in half about 7000 years ago and created a landslide. A lot of rockfalls in the winter occur as a result of mass erosion. In 1990 a huge rockfall occurred covered the Visitor's centre in dust and debris. In 1995 another landslide occurred and stranded a couple of hundred people in the lodge for 2 days!
People have been coming for centuries because of the availability of water. On the surface the area appears arid but there are many signs that this is not the case. For example, Fremont Cottonwood trees are capable of drinking 100 gallons of water a day and these are dotted all over the park. Many small waterfalls originate from within the rock itself (Navajo Sandstone is comprised of almost 16% water). The crystal clear spring water has filtered through over thousands of years and comes out of the side of the canyon wall (probably better and cheaper than any bottled water you'd buy in the shops). Menu falls is one of dozens of natural springs and has Maiden hair fern and beautiful wildflowers in the Spring - and probably why it is such a popular location for wedding photos!
Ranger Mike explained that 160-200 million years ago there was a huge Navajo Desert - sand dunes were between 2-3000 feet in depth. So, the first step in the formation of the area was sedimentation of sand with lots of air pockets in between the grains of sand. Step 2 was lithification (turning into stone) as water put a lot of weight onto the stone. Large amounts of iron oxide (rust) and calcium carbonate (lime) have created the different layers of colour we see today. Step 3: we have uplift via plate tectonics and continental drift - rising up to plateau heights. Step 4 we have erosion with gravity and water at work.
The Virgin River carved the canyon over time - and still continues to do so - removing 16 tons of rubble everyday (primarily through flash floods). It starts at 10000feet in Lake Navajo and ends at 2000feet at Lake Mead near Las Vegas. The Narrows are a prime example of how the river slices through the rock like a hot knife through butter!
Zion receives more than 3million visitors a year. Cathedral Mountain and Angel's Landing are popular trails for those looking for a little adventure. There are 2,5miles of strenuous hiking and climbing up 1500feet. Weeping Rock is a great place to be on a warm afternoon as it is cool. Cable Mountain had a cable system to haul Ponderosa Pine Trees to the floor. The original lodge was built with timber brought down from Cable Mountain. When Brigham Young came here, he prophesied that lumber would come flying down and 60 years later, the cable system was built!
The Sutheran Payute lived here 200 years ago and believe that the god Kina Sava would throw down rocks. The god Sina Wava was the good guy and the Temple of Sinawava is now the last stop on the shuttle bus which is where we left Ranger Mike so we could walk along the river to the start of the famous Narrows walk. Along the trail, we spotted mule deer, chipmunks and squirrels. There were notices every few metres not to feed the wild animals but I guess people continue to ignore these notices because the squirrels were really overweight and would approach people quite close!
The walk is dusty - I could taste the earth in my mouth - as probably hundreds of people attempt the Narrows Walk every day in the summer. The trail is predominantly through the Virgin River, so you have to wear river shoes and some people are injured due to falling on slippery rocks and sometimes even hypothermia! We weren't really equipped for this type of hike and we also still had to get to Bryce Canyon that day, so we chose not to do it, but we walked up to the start of the trail and you could see dozens of people up ahead wading knee deep in the cold, muddy river waters.
It was time to leave and what a spectacular way to exit the monumental park! We exited through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel which is just over 1 mile long and requires an escort if you're travelling in a large vehicle or caravan. Very narrow in parts, there's a few "windows" where you can catch amazing views into Zion but then plunged into the narrow darkness again!
The drive on to Bryce Canyon NP was lovely. We drove through arid hills, tall rocky outcrops and every so often, we would pass through lush farmland valleys that seemed like sparkling, precious emerald oases surrounded by semi-precious tigers-eye wastelands. I wish we had more time to explore Red Canyon (the colours were really red) but it was getting late and it looked as if there was a storm approaching.
By the time we'd found a camping spot, gotten change to pay the cash, set up the tent and tarp, found a shower, eaten some food, accessed the pizzeria's wi-fi and gotten ready for bed in the dark, it was already 11pm! I was exhausted!
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