Once again like Bryce, I have to say everyone needs to see this place. Very different from Bryce in that it has some of the red mountains, but what Zion has are very large mountains that have an incredible geologic history. Zion is also different from Bryce in that the little town outside of the park called Springdale reminds us of what Sedona must have been like about 30 years ago. It is a cute little town with lots of stores, restaurants, and places to stay. And the town has an agreement with the park, whereby the shuttles run through the town to take visitors into the park for free. Outside of Bryce is an area called Ruby's, and there is an interesting story of how Ruby came to own all of the adjacent property to the entrance of Bryce.
We did experience a bit of trouble, twice in the three days we have been here. Before we left Bryce, we spent an evening in the hot tub relaxing from one of our hikes. Not until we got out and were ready did to leave did we discovered that Deane had the car keys in the pocket of his swim trunks. The car keys and the remote to open the car!
After that, we noticed each time we used the remote to lock the car, the horn noise seemed to get louder. We did not think anything about it until we parked at the visitors center in Zion and Deane hit the remote to lock the car and it started to 'honk', and then just started making one loud, long honking noise. Nothing we tried, pushing the unlock button, pushing the red alert button, or starting the car made any difference. We had the hood open trying to figure out where the electric connection to the horn was when a ranger came around to see what was happening. He saw we had the hood open and I figure he did not know anything about cars, so he turned around and walked away. The horn finally stopped by itself after about what seemed an eternity but was really about 60 seconds. We now lock the car with the button on the door and use the key to open the door.
Our second incident was on our way home from touring Zion the first day as well, and as I was gathering everything from the car I stuck my camera in the soft cooler with some other things. I knew there had been ice in a bag in the cooler, but thought it was all closed up. Nope, it was open and all the ice that had melted was on the bottom and throughout my camera. We have gotten the pictures off the card, but so far the camera is not working.
Both Bryce and Zion have great systems to take tourists to see the sights. But you cannot drive in Zion, and must take one of their free buses. So the first day we did the same thing here and took the bus to see everything and took a small hike,. Our second day we went directly to the Riverside walk. This is a walk that Deane has wanted to do for over 30 years, so it was a must. We actually met another man doing the same thing who said he had waited 30 years to take the same walk.
The Virgin river runs through the park (eventually into to Lake Powell and the Colorado River) and is responsible for creating most of the canyon. The hike is an easy 1 mile paved walk to the end. Once there you have the opportunity to get in the river and hike for however long you would like of the 16 mile Narrows, with its soaring walls, sandstone grotto's, natural springs and hanging gardens. We walked for about 1/2 mile and the water was 57 degrees and ankle to thigh deep. It was one of the most fun things we have done, and we highly recommend it to anyone who visits Zion if the circumstances and weather are right.
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The geology of Zion is impressive. The different layers of rock seen in these cliffs tell you what happened here up to 250 million years ago.
This area was once a flat desert larger than the Sahara and at a time when North America was closer to the equator. The oldest sediments here were laid down about 250 million years ago by a sea. Zion continued to be near sea level for about 175 million years and received sediments washed down from highlands. Layers accumulated with the weight of each pushing down on the other, Eventually about 16,000 feet of sediments built up in Zion and the area that encompasses most of Utah, western Colorado and northern portions of Arizona and New Mexico. This is what has become known as the Colorado Plateau.
Over a 10 million year period, sand dunes formed and as the winds blew the dunes grew steeper and higher until they surpassed a 30 degree angle. When this happened, gravity would not allow the dunes to grow any higher and the sands would fall. You can see the remnants of these dunes in the Navajo Sandstone formations of the canyon.
For about 175 million years, the 16,000 feet of accumulated sediments were transformed from loose material into hard rock by tremendous pressure and compaction caused by the weight of layer upon layer.
Beginning about 40-50 million years ago, the entire Colorado Plateau began to rise up due to plate tectonics and The Grand Staircase was created. These are great stair step formations plateaus from Bryce Canyon to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The bottom layers of Bryce Canyon are the top of Zion Park, and the bottom layers of Zion are the top layers of the Grand Canyon.
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We had a great time here, temperatures were in the 90's each day, so we finally got our summer! We are onto Lake Powell next for four days.