Journey's End

Near Checkerboard Mesa, Nature Paints on a white Canvas

The last stop on our grand circuit would be the main part of Zion. Earlier we had made a brief journey into The Kolob, a remote part of the park accessible only from another entrance.

One of my favorite parts of Zion is near the eastern entrance, up off the valley floor, on the part of State Route 9 coming from Mt. Carmel. Here, the eggshell-colored Navajo sandstone seems to go wild in both form and color. The Checkerboard Mesa is criss-crossed with

More Colors of the Rainbow Captured in the Sandstone

horizontal strata and vertical cracks that give the mesa its name. Nearby, minerals tint the white stone with pastel swathes of pink, yellow, and even an unlikely lime green. Farther down the road the rock turns almost banana yellow.

Riotous Splashes of Color from Both Sandstone and Foliage

Stone's throw away, a dry wash was overgrown with cottonwoods and other trees splashing the landscape with bold reds and oranges, yellows, and golds.

Later, we descended into the valley proper, the main part of Zion, by way of a long tunnel built earlier this century. Prior to that time, the only practical way into and out of the valley was from the south.

A View Down into the Valley from the Canyon Overlook

Inside the canyon, you're surrounded by monstrous peaks such as the East and West Temples, the Great White Throne, the Court of the Patriarchs, Lady Mountain, the Altar of Sacrifice, and other curiously named peaks. As the story goes, these names

The Sentinel as Seen from the Valley Floor

are attributed to the over-developed imagination of a visiting Methodist minister. He contrived the names in fun, but they seem to have stuck.

The agent responsible for Zion -- etching the walls and scouring the floor for millions of years -- is the modest Virgin river. Though it spends most of its time meandering down the valley as little more than a trickle, it can achieve furious proportions, and it is at these times that it does the most work.

East Temple and the Great Arch seen from Valley Floor

Over the millennia the continental plate has shifted. This made the course of the Virgin steeper, accelerating its erosive force. Tributaries, not heir to the same benefit, were literally left high above as the Virgin sliced sheer walls into the stone. Nowadays, several small waterfalls plunge hundreds of feet down the valley sides, testimony of the Virgin River's efficiency.

The Virgin River Tumbles Through the Temple of Sinawava

Once within the valley, we took the scenic drive northward. It was late afternoon, and the shadows had already made their way across the valley floor. By the time we got to the end -- the Temple of Sinawava -- the entire valley was in shadows.

The deceptively humble Virgin River washes through the Narrows

The Temple of Sinawava is essentially the end of the road. It's a huge barrel of a canyon surrounding you on three sides with steep rust-colored cliffs. To the north-west is a narrow opening through which the Virgin River enters the valley, and beyond that are -- appropriately enough -- the Narrows. Lit only by the waning twilight, the narrows looked much softer than the rest of the valley, but

Sunset Softens the Light, Letting Zion's Colors Show

one needed only look at the debris beneath the steep cliff faces to see the Virgin river's potency.

Later that evening we set up the tripod near the visitor's center to get this shot into the valley. Compare the subtle colors, unhindered by shadows, to the views of the East Temple above taken earlier in the day.

The following morning we got up and made our way back into the deepest parts of the valley. Almost up to the Temple of Sinawava is Weeping Rock and the Hidden Canyon trailhead. As we started

Clinging to the wall on the Hidden Canyon Trail...

our hike, the valley floor was still shrouded in pre-dawn shade. A slender trail zig-zagged up the steep valley wall.

Before too long, we were high above the valley floor, ourselves clinging to a chain fastened to the cliff as we approached Hidden Canyon. Eight hundred fifty feet below us was the parking lot.

...You Need Only Glance Over Your Shoulder to See the Valley Floor

Once we achieve the landing into Hidden Canyon, the valley was laid out before us, and from a dramatic perspective. Before, we looked up at the smooth vertical walls; now we looked across at them. Wow.

Yet Hidden Canyon has more subtle treasures to offer. Following the wash up to its source, we came across many little treats,

Nestled in Hidden Canyon are More Bold Expressions of Nature

such as colorful sandstone strata, meticulously etched by winter rains and the seasonal currents they produce. This was like Antelope Canyon in miniature.

It seems like every place we visited, from Valley of Fire, to Bryce Canyon, to Arches National Park, to Canyonlands, and finally to Zion, had so much more to show than we had time for. And now our stay was at an end. By nightfall we would have to be in Las Vegas. The following day would find us aboard an airplane flying back to our familiar, if not somewhat mundane, world.

Last year, we concluded that a week was not enough to do justice to all these places. It's abundantly clear that two weeks is only slightly better. It's a big world, and this circuit is only a small part of it, and yet we still have barely begun to explore it.

Ah, well. There's always next time....

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