We arrived in Glendale, UT yesterday. It started raining just after we arrived, and did so on and off throughout the afternoon. However this morning it cleared out to become a beautiful day. We went to Zion NP today and did some hiking. We're pretty pooped out tonight, but let me tell you a little about Zion. It is a sandstone canyon, part of the Colorado Plateau. The Grand Canyon is also part of this plateau, in which 600 million years ago a plateau consisting of sand, shale and other rocks rose up several hundred feet. Rivers then cut though it creating canyons. For Grand it is the Colorado River, for Zion, its the Virgin River. The Mormons settled in here in 1860s, and called the place Zion to signify a safe place to worship.
The Virgin River cut down and through about 2000 feet. The Park is on the canyon floor, so almost anywhere you go within the park is up hill, climbing the sides of the canyon wall. It is beautiful, but the view gets monotonous. The trails are not as good or well marked as we would like. It also does not seem to have the nifty features that YS and GT did. Tomorrow we plan to explore canyon overlooks to get a view down instead of up. I attached some pictures, but I will tell you they really don't capture the beauty or the magnitude that you see.
Oh did I mention people? They're everywhere!
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