Heart of Zion

 

Heart of Zion

The second day of exploring Zion began very, very early.  We got up and were on our way to the Park when it was still dark, just so that we could get there in time to find a parking spot at the Visitors Center.  Now, the Visitors Center has a large parking lot, but there are so many folks who want to see what I call The Heart of Zion, we needed to get there by shortly after 7am in order to get a parking spot so that we could ride the shuttle bus into the Heart.  No passenger cars are allowed.  It was well worth the hassle, as you’ll see!

There are several stops that the shuttle bus makes, but we chose to ride it until the last stop at what’s called the Temple of Sinawava.  This is actually a natural amphitheater and is named for the coyote spirit of the Paiute Nation.  From the number of people who did what we did, it’s easy to see that this is one of the Park’s most popular destinations.  At this point, we accessed and entered the Riverside Walk.  This is a 2-mile round-trip walk along the Virgin River, and takes us into the heart of Zion Canyon. What an entryway!

After walking just a short distance, looking back, I could see how we were being engulfed by the canyon.  Even though it was fairly early in the morning, the walk was a bit dim, as the light from the sun hadn’t quite reached into the canyon walls.

The walk runs along the side of one of the canyon walls, and sometimes, the canyon wall reminds us of this by overhanging into the trail!!  Yes, I did have to bend my head a bit if I walked away from the outer edge of the trail, and was rewarded afterwards by yet another scenic view of the Virgin River.  Even though the walls of the canyon began to close in a bit, claustrophobia is simply not possible, with the feeling of space those 3,000 foot high walls created!

There were so many different peaceful views of the canyon and river, it was impossible to become bored!  The water was incredibly clear and reflected the colors of both the trees and canyon walls.  You can see the scenery beginning to brighten, as the sun of the day seeps into the canyon very slowly.

This area is home to a variety of wildlife, not the least of which are mule deer.  Here’s a little one and Mom (in the background) having breakfast along the river.  Although truly wild, they weren’t terribly afraid of all the people walking by.  Of course, the further we walked, the more spaced out we got, as some were intent on their destination, while others, like Jeff and me, sort of strolled so that we could take it the beauty of it all.  So, the deer got a slow but steady stream of admirers, instead of one big crowd!

At this point, we were fairly close to the turnaround point of the walk, and you can see even more sun making its way into the canyon.  I felt like this was a bit of a magic spot, with the beauty of the canyon walls, the lighting, the trees, and the water of the river all blended in a wonderful portrait of the canyon.

Here we are at the end of our walk into the canyon.  I did capture a number of folks who treated this spot as only the beginning of their adventures, as they were beginning to hike The Narrows.  It is billed as one of the most spectacular hikes in the country, and just based on what we saw, I believe it!  However, one must have the balance and sure-footedness of a mountain goat to tackle this, and I have neither!!  It’s also rated as a strenuous hike, at about 7,2 miles, with elevation of up to 500 feet.  The “trail” at this point, is the Virgin River itself!  I wish them luck!

Enjoy!

 

 

Taste of Zion

 

Taste of Zion

As a personal note, I have wanted to visit Zion National Park for several years.  It never seemed to work out during our travels, because Zion is in the southwest corner of Utah, and we weren’t ever in that area.  This year, we made a point of visiting it, and we were both amazed at how different the rock formations, etc., were when compared to Bryce, Arches, etc. 

All of the natural beauty of Zion is due to Zion’s geology.  Over the past 300 million years, Zion has had an incredible variety of different environments, including tropical seas, sand dune deserts, lakes, rivers and swamps!  Of course, the road we traveled on didn’t indicate any of that to us, since neither of us are geologists!!

Zion is actually a small park. At 230 square miles, it’s 1/8 the size of the Grand Canyon.  However, I began to think of it as small, but mighty.  The rock formation textures are amazing, and what totally surprised both Jeff and I were all the trees growing out of the rocks!!

Some of the really grand formations are still in the making.  The upper image seems to be an amphitheater or cave starting to form.  You can see it if you look toward the left center of the back of the canyon it now sits in.  The bottom image reminded me of the shape of the arches we saw at Arches National Park.  I think the rock is too thick for this to eventually become an arch, so maybe another amphitheater or cave?

I don’t know what caused this, but a number of the tops of the immense rock walls were white, and not from snow!!  They offered a very nice contrast to the red rocks and green trees.

Isn’t this cool?  I happened to look up just as a jet was leaving a contrail, seemingly heading directly toward one of the rock walls!

I just wanted to share the road through what I call the Taste of Zion area.  We are winding our way through huge rock formations and walls.  In many areas there are pull-off areas where you could pull off to get out of your car (or Jeep!) and take in the view.  However, for whatever reason, when we were there, it was really crowded, so we couldn’t do that.  I know, it doesn’t look busy in this image, but I worked at getting the empty road feel!!

I love the look of layers in the rocks shown in the image on the right!  Again, the trees are growing out of the rocks!!  If you look at the image on the left in the lower portion of the image, you’ll see a sort of semi-circle cut-out.  It could be a cave, but it’s not!  It’s actually a window!!  On the other side of the window, is a mile long tunnel through the rocks that we needed to drive through get in and out of Zion.  That window is even cooler in my view, when you know there’s a tunnel in all that rock!!

This image gives you a really good feel for how it felt to drive on the road through Zion in a lot of places.  I have no idea how tall those rock walls are!!  Rock climbers really like Zion for obvious reasons!  We didn’t see any climbing, but we did see several walking along the side of the road to get to their “spot”.  I’m sure that’s why the pull-over spots are very full in some places!!

Here are some close-up views of some of the natural texture of the rocks.  The image on the left is actually called the “Checkerboard”.  You can see why!  And, it’s all due to how nature kept changing the landscape of Zion.

And here’s a tunnel that we needed to drive through.  I don’t think it’s the mile-long tunnel, but I am using it to illustrate the fact that we did need to drive through a tunnel to enter and leave Zion.

But, even when you technically “leave” Zion, the beautiful scenery doesn’t stop!  The road to Zion from the east, which is the way we entered it, is called East Zion, and the views are impressive in their own right!!

Enjoy!!