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Show The LADY MOUNTAIN FOOT PATH The problem of development o: Zion National park is as yet leargcly an engineerin gone. Zion differing as it does, from most of the other National Na-tional parks, in the fact that the entrance en-trance to the park is made by way fo the canyon floor, and not by driving driv-ing over high plateaus' and approaching approach-ing from the rim as in the case ;u some of the other parks. In order that visitors may gain a knowledge of what Zion National park really Is, a system o ftrails and foot paths leading to the most prominent points on ho'h the ea.t and west rim is he-ing he-ing unedrtaken and pushed tocom-nletion tocom-nletion as fast as funds are available The first path to receive consideration consider-ation was the Lady Mountain Foo Path, which was completed in September, Sep-tember, 1923, after many difflcul problems, both in engineering and construction were met and overcome. over-come. Lady Mountain, a bold pile or granite and sandstone, is the highes accessible point on the west rim and the view fro mthe top is well vort'i the effort necessary to make the ascent. as-cent. To the north, rising pile on pile, stand the mighty ranges of the Cedar and Garnnah mountains, flanked on either side by the Pink Cliffs, and before 'which, spread in all it's rugged grandeur lies the great, west side of Zion National park. To the south and east, a panorama, unequalled un-equalled for color and ruggedness. as well as distance, meets the view. On past Pipe Spring National Monument, Monu-ment, to Kanab, and on and on to the beautiful Kaibab forest. The mighty BitQkskin range that forms hte backbone of the Kaibab plateau, looks from this distance, to be a blue-black derilict ship, with broken mast and spars going down, stgjn foremost, in a sea of gold and brown and blue sand. To the south and west the colors are much the same. Tt is nossihle. with a erood nair ot glasses to follow the tortuous windings wind-ings of the Virgin river from the time it leaves the park, on through Utah's Dixieland, into Arizona, and after joining with the slow running, sluggish, muddy river in Nevada, it makes one last wild plunge down the Bt-.nlder canyon to join the Colorado on it's way to the Gulf. And that's that. The trail itself is unique; and will provide thrills a plenty for even the mo?,t hardened mountain climbers. To ascend a mountain twenty-five hundred feet, requires an average grade, the climb would amount to nothing, but such is not the case. In places stairways are cut in the solid sol-id rock and to ascend and descend them without the help of the guard rn':!. or cable, requires a strong, steady hand and foot as well as a clear head. Mr. and Mr.?. R. C. Watkins Jr. of Salt. Lake City, were the first visitors to make the complete trip to the top. A day or so later the superintendent, making a trip of inspection, found r "iee of paner that had been torn from a pocket memorandum book, fastened with wooden pegs, to a tree that stands on the highest point or the mountain, and the inscription read: "All ye who go farther, leave all hope behind." As soon as funds are available a -helter cabin will be built at this point and a register placed within, so that all who, "leave all hope behind, be-hind, may place their names with a record of their experiences on the trip. |