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Show Road in Solid Rock Out of Zion Planned as Part of Scenic Loop Zion National Park Service By E. T. Scoyen, Supt. To enable Bryce Canyon national 'monument to become a national park; then, to bind it together with Zion national park and the north rim of Grand Canyon national park as one unit In a great scenic loop, is the object ob-ject of the new road to be constructed in Zion national park at a cost of over a million dollars, and which will be completed only after two years of work. The first section of the project will be underway this fall if present plans are carried out. In considering this unusual job of road building, it will be best to start with Zion canyon itself. This half mile wide valley, with colored sandstone sand-stone cliffs rising almost sheer for an average of three thousand feet above its floor, was referred to by native Indians in southern Utah as I-oo-goon. They also applied the name to the ltitle bag or box in which they carried their arrows, or a quiver .as we would call it. To anyone who has never visited Zion canyon the reason for the name may not be apparent; but to those who have, it need only be recalled re-called that you came out the same way you went in. Up and Back Entering the wide mouth of the canyon can-yon above the little village of Rock-ville Rock-ville the walls gradually crowd in as the traveler proceeds up the valley floor. At the checking station at. the park entrance the walls are barely a half mile apart. Seven miles above this point the road ends, and from -here you may walk an additional mile to the Narrows where the perpendicular perpendicu-lar walls come to the very edge of the Mukuntuweap river. Here yon "must turn back. Since the advent of the white man in this section, the sides of the quiver have been punctured at three places. The national park service has built fine trails up over the walls to both the east and west rims, and everything from pins to steam boilers have been taken up over the old cable way built by the "Mormon" pioneers. It is possible pos-sible that the old Indians expect the white interloper eventually to meet disaster for his temerity in making these developments in what he consid- ers the abiding place of the Great j Spirit; but he has never expressed himself. j Out of I-oo-joon However, these methods of getting up over the cliffs do not fit into our modern age, and the pale-face now proposes to build a. road out of l-oo-goon, so that the thousands of motorists motor-ists may have easy access to other wonders in the same section of the country. The Indian may find what satisfaction he can in the fact, that even if the road is built, the canyon will still be I-oo-goon; because, the only route will be very near the mouth of the canyon, and those who drive up the main gorge to the Temple of Sina-wava Sina-wava must still retrace their steps seven miles before they can go anywhere any-where else. The construction of the road ittelf is an engineering problem of the first magnitude. Dr. L. I. Hewes, deputy chief engineer of the U. S. bureau of public roads in charge of road construction con-struction in national parks in 11 west-em west-em states, has referred to it as the bigegst single job the bureau has ever undertaken. As is the case with all stream eroded canyons, the Pine creek gorge soon narrows down and finally there is room between the walls for only the creek itself. Due to this fact, a total of 6.290 feet of the section in the park will be in solid rock tunnel, a most unusual feature from the standpoint of highway construe ion. Observation Points Although the tunnel will be cont'nu-ous cont'nu-ous after it is once entered, galleries will be broken out along the face of the cliff for ventilation, lighting. ad to serve as observation points. The longest section between galleries will be 1.500 feet, and all told, there will be Fix such openings. Looking out from these points the views will be sensa- j tional, to say the lea-'.t. The observer 1 v.iil find the massive bulk of East j Tf-mple rising 3.500 feet above the err k bed and dominating the entire j lan1.vnjrf! to the north; while wester- j y the untrodden summit of Wert Temple and the Towers of the Virgen Manri in bold relief against the sky. In the foreground will be seen the , Great. Arch of Zion. 120 feet long. '.,1)0 ', feet Inch and SO feet back to the r.up- 1 porting wall. i Another striking feature from both : an engineering and .veiik: standpoint, j will he the five great zig-zag:; wluYh will rnrry the road-way up from the bottom bot-tom of I'lne rreek over the talus slojie to the foot, of the cliff where t will enter the tunnel. Nearly four miles of roadway will f tried In thin sertlon to make the necessary elevation. To Protect- Landscape In plans for the construction of the park section, every precaution has been taken to protect the landscape features in order that the natural beauty of the area traversed will not , be destroyed. No part of the road will be in the main Zion canyon, except the short section necessary to cross the valley and river to the mouth of Pine creek canyon. So carefully has it been laid out that only a few hundred feet of the new road will be visable from the present main road up the central gorge. If it were necessary to make scars upon the primal walls of Zion. the road would never be built. In order to understand just what the new road will accomplish, fix in your mind the location of Bryce canyon national na-tional monument Cedar Breaks and Grand canyon national park, using Zion as a central point. As the crow flies, Bryce is about 54 miles northeasterly; north-easterly; Cedar Breaks is north about 30 miles: and the Grand canyon is so'uth about 90 miles. By road it is now 159 miles to Bryce, 139 to Cedar Breaks and 142 to Grand canyon. When the new road is built it will be 88. 70 and 1 respectively. It will be no harder to make these distances than it is at present to drive around the famous Yellowstone loop. Will Total Sl.200.000 The new road will leave the present highway up Zion at the checking station. sta-tion. It strikes easterly up the tributary tribu-tary Pine creek canyon and joins the present road between Bryce and the north rim a few miles south of the little settlement of Mt. Carmel. The total length of the project is 24 miles, of which eight and one-half is in the park. The section from the boundary to Mt. Carmel will be built by the state of Utah as a federal aid project and will cost about S350.000 while the park section will total about $1,200,000. From the above fact it may be seen that the new highway will not be for the benefit of a single park, but will be an inter-park road of the first magnitude. However, when road developments de-velopments in the southwest as a whole are taken into consideration, it becomes even more than this. The completion of the bridge at Lees Ferry, across the Colorado river, will make it a section of a great arterial highway running north and south between Glacier national park on the Canadian line and the Mexican boundary' in southern Arizona, and having on its route the other wonderlands of Yellowstone, Yel-lowstone, Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon Can-yon national parks, including both the north and south rims. Within Two Years Officials of the interior department of which the national park service is a bureau, are anxious to have the road authorized for completion within two years. If this should be the case, Bryce canyon will enter the family of national parks. The act setting aside this area passed three years ago. but contained a provision that it would not become effective until all lands within its boundaries riad become property of the federal government. The Union Pacific railroad and the state of Utah have agreed to turn over their holdings if the new highway is authorized for completion within two years. Should this be the case, Bryce will automatically automatic-ally become a national park. No one will deny the right of this wonder to take its place in the system. Although Al-though not built on a scale of grandeur, grand-eur, it Is one of nature's outstanding artistic achievements, and probably her most sublime expression of pure beauty. Funds for the construction of the highway will come from the national park service as part of the national ' park road budget. The work will be J directed by the U. S. bureau of public j roads. I A New Wonderland When it is finally completed the road will stand as a monument to the J results which can be accomplished through cooperation between the fed- cral government, state authorities and private enterprise. The government , took over Zion when It appeared that It might be a liability for a good many i years. The state has slurp underlak- en. and practically completed, the I difficult task of building modern highways through sparsely settled country to make It available to people , from all parts of the world, and the ramps and lodges, with the necessary I transportation facilities, were Install-! ed when their operation as a successful success-ful business enterprise was some time in the future. However, the seeker for the beautiful, the majestic, and the sublime in nature has discovered a new wonderland, and the constantly mounting tide of travel indicates that no labor will be lost. The new highway high-way will benefit all those who have given something In order that Its completion com-pletion will he assured. j |