OCR Text |
Show Southern Utah Counties Invite Early Autumn Visitors Five southern Utah counties, rich in both scenery and history, are expected to prove especially attractive to visitors this fall. With spectacular Zion and Bryce National Parks and the nearby mountain and canyon country at their scenic best in early fall, residents of the region traversed by U. S. Highways 91, 89 and adjacent routes promise special efforts to welcome vacationists. Scores of guided tours to historic his-toric spots, local rodeos and similar simi-lar events will be scheduled during dur-ing the Labor Day-October 15th period in Washington, Iron, Garfield, Gar-field, Kane and Beaver counties. All out efforts are being made to interest Southern California residents in all season Utah visits programs of welcome are being planned for Mormon Conference visitors traveling through these five counties, and vacationists from all other sectors of Utah will also find a warm welcome in the host counties. During early autumn the aspen trees in the region take on . a bright yellow hue, cottonwoods along creek bottoms flash golden leaves in clear sunlight, while oakbrush and hardwood trees turn bright red. With such a background the canyons and pinnacles of Zion, Bryce, Cedar Breaks, the new Dixie State Park and similar beauty spots take on a new look. Experienced travelers report the region is the equal of the famed foliage that brings countless autumn tourists to the New England states. I September and October bring average temperatures ranging from the mid sixties to low eighties eigh-ties . - ideal for hiking, riding, rock hounding, photgraphy or sight seeing. Motels at such centers cen-ters as St. George, Cedar City, Milford, Beaver, Panguitch and Kanab are uncrowded. Both Zion and Bryce are open to visitors the year around, park superintendents superin-tendents note. With hundreds of Latter-day Saints from California and Arizona Ari-zona traveling to and from Salt Lake City to attend the annual October Conference, the seasonal spotlight will also focus on historic his-toric sites and buildings of the five counties. Such communities as Springdale, Hurricane, Order-ville, Order-ville, Escalante and Glendale are expected to prove of special interest in-terest due to renewed appreciation apprecia-tion of the century old Pioneer homesteads of adobe and native sandstone, bordered by tree-lined tree-lined irrigation streams and the quiet side roads. In most communities in the five counties, simply built chapel structures testify to the faith which brought the first permanent perma-nent residents to a rugged land. At Pine. Valley a church more than a century old is believed the first such edifice still standing stand-ing in Utah. In St. George, the sandstone Mormon Tabernacle with its "NewEngland" style steeple, the dazzling temple and 1869 courthouse will attract history his-tory minded visitors, as will the winter home of Brigham Young. At Santa Clara the crumbling sandstone home of Jacob Ham-blin, Ham-blin, which like the Brigham Young residence, is being studied stud-ied for acquisition for State Park purposes, makes a good goal for historians or photographers. History of another kind was made near Cedar City, where well preserved and partially restored re-stored beehive coke ovens mark the start of the region's iron industry in-dustry in 1851. At Kanab, colorful color-ful community where Zane Grey spun such yarns as his "Riders of the Purple Sage," visitors can tour movie sets used in far more recent "horse operas." In Beaver, Panguitch, Milford, St. George, Cedar City, Kanab and virtually every five county community, motels and restaurants restau-rants promise special efforts to greet visitors during the Labor Day- October 15 period. Civic groups and such organizations as the Sons of Utah Pioneers and Daughters of Utah Pioneers have also pledged special efforts to welcome strangers. |