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Show OPENINGOF ZION NATURAL : PARK ATTRACTS ATTENTION t T On June 20th, 1017, there will be opened to the public the latest and . jprobably the most beautiful member ' j- l Uncle Sam'a family of neat na tiorial play-jjrounds--Zion National Park in Washinfrton County, the extreme ex-treme southwest corner of Utah. In connection with the Salt Lake Route a line of hih-powered automobiles auto-mobiles hag been established between Lund, Utah and Zion Canyon, a dis- !tance of 103 miles over the new state road which is now in ideal condition all the way to Rprindale, at the southern border of the park. Within the park, expert government engineers are completing a system of roads making the principal scenic points easily accessible. Mr. W. W. Wylie, whose name is familiar to most western west-ern travelers as the founder of the excellent camps in Yellowstone Park, has erected similar accomodations in Zion Park, where the same high class service and popular prices will pre- Ivail. Guides, saddle horses or automobiles automo-biles may be had for special trips off the main highways. Two days spent in the park will afford the visitor beauty, and weeks will not exhaust its attractions. Zion Cannon has received little publicity; comparatively few persons per-sons have visited it and, although articles of highest eulogy have appeared ap-peared from time to time in the magazines, ma-gazines, it is hardly known at all to the general public. In the first published pub-lished monograph of the U. S. Geological Geo-logical Survey, Capt. Dutton has written a description of the region !that has not been surpassed and the following brief acocunt has been taken from his pages. The culminating splendor of the Canyon is visible where the Zion Creek flows into the Virgin River, and is manifested in the two great "Temples of the Virgin." These, however, are but the central and dominating features' in a mighty throng of eroded masses wrought in the same exalted style and colored with the same pigments. The Canyon wall, :i,000 feet high, breaks to great pediments embellished with rich carving, car-ving, and suggesting, in its effect, the Gothic architecture of Milian Cathedral Cath-edral expanded to a colossal scale. Soaring a thousand feet above the Canyon's rim and four thousand feet above the river, surrounded by a vast pile of white towers, is the glorious summit of the Eastern Temple, a demo-like mass which jointly with its western brother commands the entire en-tire landscape. It is almost pure white with streaks of carmine descending de-scending its vertical walls; it-, crest is truncated and a flat entablature of deep red crowns the highest point. While the shape of this sublime mass is definite and strongly original, origi-nal, it may hardly be likened to any familiar object. The Western Temple is similar in bulk, contour, coloring and majesty. A hrist of lesser towers all white above and rich red below, form the immediate retinue of these grand monarchs. Not the least charm of the towers and temples lies in the magic effect of the sun; the early morning rays produce a transformation transforma-tion which fades until the vast masses seem to drowse and shrink in the midday mid-day brilliance to re-awaken in the afternoon with new significance. In addition to the towers and temples tem-ples of Zion Canyon, mention should be made of Paruntuweap Canyon, extending ex-tending eastward and of the mighty terraced scrap of the Vermillion Cliffs, stretching away to the Colo-1 Colo-1 rado River. The setting of these I scenes is a hospitable, subtropical I land where tobacco, cotton and grapes I thrive. Zion Canyon, in point of size, may be compared to the Y'osemite, but in the nobility and beauty of its sculptured sculp-tured walls it far surpasses that sunken sun-ken valley. Reduced fares to Lund and to Zion Zi-on Canyon will he placed in effect by the Salt Lake Route from June :0th to September 14th. -Beaver County News. t |