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Show Zion's Park Is Full of Beautiful Sights ZION ACTIVITIES The Visitor's Center just inside the south entrance to the park is from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Here you can find Information, exhibits and a color slide program. Then there is also guided walks daily. You can take the Emerald Pools Trail daily at 9 a.m., allow two hours for this easy walk. There is also the Gateway to the Narrows Trrail this walk also takes two hours, meet at 6 p.m. at the trailhead at the Temple of Sinawava. There are also evening programs at three different points in the park. At 8:30 sach evening at the Zion Lodge Auditorium, Watchman Amphitheatre at 9:30 p.m. and at the South Amphitheatre at 9:30 p.m. All children 6 through 12 years of age are welcome to participate in the Zion Nature School, this is an outdoor program. Registration is between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. and 1 :00 and 1 :30 p.m. daily Monday through Friday at the school building located just north of the South Campground. Classes are from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. There are activities for all ages in the park, just drop in the Visitor's Center and get information in-formation and schedule of activigies. Hanging Gardens of maidenhair fern, monkeyflower and columbine, to the beginning of the Zion Narrows, where you have to wade in the river to go further. The Narrows extend for 12 miles, and there are places where six people, standing in water waist deep, can link hands and touch either wall of the 1500-feet deep canyon. It is very rough going because of the current, low water temperature and rocky riverbed. This trip should not be attempted until the end of June, and then only after obtaining a permit at the Visitor Center. . v The East Side TheZion-Mt. Carmel Highway, built during 1927-30, leads through the eastern part of the Park out to U.S. 89, the most direct route to Bryce Canyon and grand Canyon National Parks. Starting from the Zion Canyon Junction, Junc-tion, the road parallels Pine Creek a mile before crossing it over a beautiful bridge. The workman tried to place in the bridge every color that naturally occurs in the sandstone, and the result is an amazing variety of reds, yellows and browns. What's more, if you walk down to the creek you will find that the bridge frames the West Temple for a perfect late morning photograph. Now the switchbacks begin, and as you climb a thousand feet to the mouth of the mile-long tunnel, you can see the Great Arch of Zion at the head of Pine Creek Canyon. On the east side of the tunnel is a parking lot for , the Canyon Overlook Trail, which is V2 mile long and brings you out above the Great Arch. A pamphlet is available at the trailhead which explains the natural history and geology to be seen. The road now winds seven miles through a fantastic landscape of sandstone slickrock. The sweeping lines in the rock are the bedding bed-ding planes of sand dunes deposited here 180 million years ago and eventually compressed , t and cemented into stone. Fractures, cutting through the rock like so many slices of a knife, were caused by the pressure of an immense uplift. Hoodoos near Checkerboard Mesa are capped with iron-rich sandstone. The Kolob The northwest section of Zion can be entered en-tered off Interstate 15 on the Kolob Canyons Road. The five-mile road climbs through tilted and overturned rock formations, evidence of the powerful earth forces which caused the Hurricane Fault. From Lee Pass, a trail leads to Kolob Arch, a popular overnight over-night hike. At the end of the road is a picnic area with an overlook of Timber Top Mesa and the Finger Canyons of the Kolob. Wildlife Mule deer can often be seen from the road, but a greater variety of wildlife will be found on the trails. You can hardly walk a hundred yards along the river without seeing cootonwood trees which beaver have gnawed down. The chirp of the big, gray rock squirrel sound bird-like, but is more monotonous. . Gray fox, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion and ringtail hunt late at night in the canyon and on the plateau. . In late May and early June, birds are singing all day from the cottonwoods and live oaks. Listen for the black-headed gosbeak, solitary and warbling vireo, robin and lazuli bunting. Golden eagles sometimes soar around the highest peaks of the canyon. The western rattlesnake, rarely seen on trails, is the only poisionous reptile. Slim, striped or checked whiptail lizards dart about in the tall grass; the black and white ringed , kingsnake may be seen crossing a trail; and canyon treefrogs sound-off along the side ; canyon streams. v |
