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Utah's oldest and most visited
national park, Zion National Park is located in southwestern Utah.
Most
of the park's 147,000 acres are located within Washington County; near
Springdale Utah, however, the extreme eastern section of the park is
in Kane County, while the park's northern tip extends into Iron County.
Zion Canyon is located on the southern part of the Markagunt Plateau.
It is cut by tributaries of the Virgin River which have left eroded
canyon walls and monoliths that are beautiful and overpowering.
Sprindale
Utah 's Zion Canyon presents a diverse collection of nature's wonders
that include such features as the towering and magnificent 2,200-foot
Great White Throne, the park's most famous landmark; the Court of the
Patriarchs; the Sentinel; the Watchman; Checkerboard Mesa; Kolob Arch,
at 310 feet the world's largest known natural span; and the Narrows
of the Virgin River, where a person can walk upstream to places so narrow
that both sides of the canyon walls can almost be touched with one's
outstretched hands.
Protected
within Zion National Park's 229 square miles is a spectacular cliff-and-canyon
landscape and wilderness full of the unexpected including Kolob Arch
-the world's largest arch - with a span that measures 310 feet. Zion
National Park near Springdale Utah is full of beautiful colors, scenery
and wildlife.
Wildlife such as mule deer,
golden eagles, and mountain lions, also inhabit the Springdale Utah area.
Mukuntuweap National Monument proclaimed July 31, 1909; incorporated in
Zion National Monument March 18, 1918; established as a national park
on Nov. 19, 1919.
One
early visitor to Springdale Utah 's Zion Canyon, Frederick S. Dellenbaugh,
an artist who had been with John Wesley Powell on his second trip down
the Grand Canyon in 1872, spent part of the summer of 1903 painting
in Zion Canyon. The paintings were exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's
Fair and an article about Zion Canyon, "A New Valley of Wonders,"
was published by Dellenbaugh in the January 1904 issue of Scribner's
Magazine. In the article, Dellenbaugh described his first view of the
Great Temple, which stands at the entrance to Zion Canyon: "One
hardly knows just how to think of it. Never before has such a naked
mountain of rock entered our minds. Without a shred of disguise it transcendent
form rises pre-eminent. There is almost nothing to compare to it. Niagara
has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon of immensity; the Yellowstone
of singularity; the Yosemite of altitude; the ocean of power; this Great
Temple of eternity."
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