Zion National Park and Its Canyons

Mag­nif­i­cent Nation­al Parks in North Amer­i­ca are num­bered in hun­dreds of beau­ti­ful places, the state of Utah in the USA is espe­cial­ly proud of this. Zion Nation­al Park is one such won­der­ful place. It is locat­ed in the south­west of the state, near Spring­dale, and cov­ers an area of ​​593 square kilo­me­ters. On Novem­ber 19, 1919, the park received the sta­tus of a Nation­al Park dur­ing the pres­i­den­cy of William Howard Taft.

Zion Canyon is con­sid­ered the main attrac­tion of the park. It is 24 kilo­me­ters long and 800 meters deep. The canyon was formed by a fork of the Vir­gin Riv­er in the red­dish and bronze col­ored Nava­jo Sand­stone. It was dis­cov­ered by Mor­mons in 1858 and set­tled by them in the ear­ly 1860s. How­ev­er, Indi­an tribes lived here as ear­ly as 8,000 years ago. The canyon is locat­ed between dif­fer­ent bio­log­i­cal sys­tems — for­est, riv­er and desert, at the inter­sec­tion of the Col­orado Plateau, the Great Basin of the desert high­lands and the Mojave Desert region, which make the park so unique.

This amaz­ing park has a unique flo­ra and fau­na — 289 species of birds, 75 species of mam­mals and 32 species of rep­tiles. Here you can meet moun­tain lions, deer, eagles, Cal­i­forn­ian con­dors, not to men­tion 19 vari­eties of bats! Among the Nation­al Parks of the USA, this place is one of the most pop­u­lar.

The low­est point of the park is Coal Pits (1118 meters below sea lev­el), the high­est point is Mount Ran­cho (2661 meters above sea lev­el). Zion Nation­al Park is not only unique flo­ra and fau­na, but pri­mar­i­ly moun­tains, canyons, hills, mesas, mono­liths, rivers, slot canyons and nat­ur­al vaults — such orig­i­nal names as the Great White Throne, Angel Land­ing, Cas­tle Roof, Court Patri­archs. The park includes 9 dif­fer­ent geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tions that have been formed over 150 mil­lion years. The local moun­tains are com­posed of sand­stone con­tain­ing a large amount of iron oxides — this is why the rocks have such a rich red col­or. Over the years, the waters of rivers and streams have bro­ken through canyons and cracks in the moun­tains. The height of their walls reach­es 900 meters, and some­times the walls touch each oth­er, where their width can be less than 10 meters.

Fan­tas­tic col­or­ful labyrinths, majes­tic peaks, bizarre forms of stone tow­ers and domes — you will undoubt­ed­ly be delight­ed! The road to Zion Park ends at the Sinawa­va Tem­ple, an Indi­an deity in the form of a coy­ote. In the park, you can ride a bike, or explore the hik­ing trails with a cam­era. Between March and Octo­ber you can go horse­back rid­ing. The cost to enter the park with a pri­vate car is $30 (as of 2015), if you want to walk you need to pay $15. The tick­et is valid for 7 days.