Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah.
When we arrive there, Alfredo and I are impressed by the massive mountains in this area. It is similar to the moment when you enter a Renaissance castle for the first time: you want to take a look at every detail but you simply cannot because there are too many details to observe!
On the road that crosses the Zion National Park, we stop so many times that Alfredo decides to go walking to the Canyon, which is located several miles away. I continue by car and meet with a professional photographer who tells me that he «never get tired of this». Then, Alfredito comes to me and we enjoy a walk to the cascades together, but this is not the best spot. After a picnic, we go to the Canyon, which is THE monument here. This is a little moody path to go to the end of this trail, but we like it, no, we love it.
We are in direct contact with nature.
At the end of the trail, we see a couple of persons with special suits to walk in the river, while we saw some Water Floods advises in many places. But because the Canyon is spectacular (and they are young), they do it!
At the end of the day, Alfredo is shining, and I am pleasing mother nature to let us see this again!
On our way to go to sleep, we find the city of Kanab, at the frontier with the state of Arizona. We are tired, and we definitivaly want to sleep in a good bed, far from any attraction.
So, the Parry Lodge Motel seems to be the nicest (and not that expensive) place in town.
And what?? This is also a well-known motel!!
Why? Because Personalities such as, Ronald Reagan, Annie Cordy (a french actress), John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Olivia De Havilland, Gregory Peck, Maureen O’Hara, Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Robert Taylor, Anne Bancroft, Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Clint Eastwood and Barbara Stanwyck stayed at Parry’s while filming in the many scenic locales in and around Kanab, the Utah’s little Hollywood. All the walls are full of pictures of these actors. Now, almost everyone is dead, but they are steel alive in our memories.
During the night, I have the sensation to sleep with Gregory Peck, or Dean Martin…
Zion National Park
A prominent feature of the 229 square miles (590 km2) park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. The lowest elevation is 3,666 ft (1,117 m) at Coalpits Wash and the highest elevation is 8,726 ft (2,660 m) at Horse Ranch Mountain.
Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park’s unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park’s four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest.
Common plant species include cottonwood, Cactus, Datura, Juniper, Pine, Boxelder, Sagebrush, yucca , and various willows.
Notable megafauna include mountain lions, mule deer, and Golden Eagles, along with the reintroduced Bighorn Sheep. Zion National Park also has rare and endangered species such as the Peregrine Falcon, Mexican spotted owl, California condor, desert tortoise, and the Zion snail (found nowhere else on earth).
Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches.
Human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of Native Americans; the semi-nomadic Basketmaker Anasazi (300 CE) stem from one of these groups. In turn, the Virgin Anasazi culture (500 CE) developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities. A different group, the Parowan Fremont, lived in the area as well. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits and several other Southern Paiute subtribes.
The canyon was discovered by Mormons in 1858 and was settled by that same group in the early 1860s. In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918, however, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service changed the park’s name to Zion as the original name was locally unpopular.
Zion is one of the names of Jerusalem in ancient Hebrew.
The United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19, 1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the park in 1956.
The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes 9 formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation.
At various periods in that time warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3,000 m) starting 13 million years ago.
Viva la vida!! Life is beautiful... 