| Show HAN HANGING IN GARDENS I OF ZION liON By J. J W. W Thornton Ranger Naturalist Zion Bryce Zion Bryce Nature Notes Tradition tells us of the wonderful hanging gardens of Babylon long ago buried burled In the ruins of that great city Had the ancient globe trotters visited th t M now ft ca 1 1 e d th e Zi 71 on M Nati o nap e Park he would have found nature planting on the gaily colored walls of ot Zion Canyon a ravishing hanging gar gar- den The man-built man gardens of Babylon Babylon Babylon Baby Baby- lon have been for centuries a ruin but those glories of Zion planted and nurtured by Nature in the long dead centuries are today a beauty spot that sinks deep Into the soul and memory of all nature lovers who visit Zion Natures Nature's landscape gardner planned everything He lIe led the waters from the melting snows on the high plateaus down through fissures in the sandstone walls He saw that It kept the vermillion vermillion vermillion vermil vermil- lion cliff wet for two or three hundred feet up the side Then he chose well ell the vegetation that should grow there He lie planted the brilliant cardinal flower flow now er Lobelia so red that the prismatic colors of the rainbow have nothing to boast of in its presence the shooting star norum with its five points daintily dressed in purple and yellow the monkey flower robed In scarlet the maiden hair ferns whose flowing tresses cov cover cover r much of the canyon wall As you gaze at the wall It looks l like a great chromatic curtain The many shades of green brown red yellow pink lavender blue the fancy colored moss the decorative grasses everything everything every every- thing adds to the beauty of It aU all That mass of waving glory all yellow and green bows to you as you enter and waves goodbye when you leave is the never forgotten columbine of Zion We feel with the poet that a ora thing of beauty is a Joy forever |
