Just outside St. George is home to Utah’s first national park- Zion National Park. There are 5 national parks in Utah which are fondly called the Utah High 5. Zion is the largest of the parks with close to 500,000 acres of land. With so much land, visitors have a what seems like a never ending list of possible areas to explore and trails to hike.
While I would have loved to do some hiking in the park, for this visit we would only be driving through taking the road that would lead to another national park. But with it being spring break for many people the park was packed full of people and there was a long line of cars just trying to get into the park. If you want to be able to visit Zion apart from the crowds, I suggest coming in the winter and arriving early in the morning.
This area has long been inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years. Archeologists have dated communities back 8,000 years of different semi-nomadic tribes. In 1858 the Mormon settlers arrived in the area and began creating communities.
In 1909 President William Howard Taft designated this area as the Mukuntuweap National Monument in order to protect the canyon. Later on in 1919 it was renamed Zion National Park after the newly created national park service enlarged the area far beyond the canyon. The change of name came from a biased belief that visitors would be deterred from coming to the park if it had a Spanish or Indian name and so changed it to something they thought would be more ethnocentric.
As we drove higher and higher through the park, we could see the beginning of arch formations in the rockface created by wind and erosion. It would be so fascinating to take a time lapse video of this arch to see it fully formed, but no one has that kind of battery life. But somewhere in the next hundreds or thousands of years, this crevice will be full arch emerged from the rock of the park.
Zion really is a geological wonder as you can see the layers of thousands of years played out in the rocks and formations. Every part of the park offers a different kind of view with different rock types and different patterns across the rocks. Zion shows 150 million years of history and just how powerful natural elements of wind, water, and earth really are.
As you drive farther up through the park, you come to cut out tunnels through the mountains. These tunnels are such an incredible feat of engineering as they had to create the tunnel, with window like opening throughout the tunnel, while still preserving the natural wonder of the park.
Even not being able to hike any of the many trails, seeing the change of the rocks and the different patterns is incredible. No turn of the road brings the same sight as before and each one leaves you wondering just how nature could have made something so beautiful.
We had a great time driving through the beautiful mountains of Zion National Park and seeing millions of years of sedimentation change and mix into this incredible park. Visitors could very easily spend weeks of time here and still not see everything this park has to offer.
Want some more of the Utah High 5? Then check out these other posts:
Thanks for coming along on this drive through Zion National Park. May you climb to new heights and see new beautiful views from where you were before.
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