NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview Zion National Park Utah

Contact Information For more information about the Zion National Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or 1-435-772-3256 or write to: Superintendent, Zion National Park, Springdale, UT 84767 Park Description

Located in Washington, Iron, and Kane counties in Zion is a leader in protecting natural resources and southwestern Utah, Zion National Park encompasses some embracing sustainable practices that reduce the effects of of the most scenic canyon country in the United States. The park operations on climate change. In order to accomplish park is characterized by high plateaus, a maze of narrow, this, Zion has implemented sustainable policies and deep, sandstone canyons, and striking rock towers and mesas. practices. Examples included eliminating the need to The North Fork of the Virgin River has carved a spectacular purchase bottled water in plastic containers by providing gorge through Zion Canyon, where sandstone walls rise 2,000 and publicizing water bottle filling stations; creating a to 3,000 feet above the canyon floor. The southern part of the recycling program for staff, visitors, and concessioners; park is a lower desert area, with colorful mesas bordered by installing solar panels that provide electricity to many of rocky canyons and washes. The northern sections of the park the park buildings; and using energy efficient vehicles. are higher plateaus covered by forests. These actions will help Zion meet the challenge of the National Park Service to leave park resources unimpaired Zion is one of the earliest additions to the national park for the enjoyment of future generations. system. On July 31, 1909, President William H. Taft issued a proclamation setting aside 15,200 acres as the Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918 another presidential proclamation enlarged the monument to 76,800 acres and changed its name to Zion National Monument. Congress established the area as a national park in 1919. A second Zion National Monument (now called the Kolob Canyons) was established by presidential proclamation in 1937. Congress added the Kolob Canyons to Zion National Park in 1956. The park currently encompasses 148,733 acres.

On March 30, 2009, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (Public Law 111-11) designated the vast majority of Zion National Park as wilderness. A total of 124,462 acres of Zion is designated wilderness (84% of the park), and 9,047 acres (6% of the park) are recommended for wilderness designation. This means that 90% of the park is managed as wilderness, as per NPS policy. The legislation also designated 144 miles of wild and scenic rivers in Zion National Park, the first wild and scenic rivers designated in Utah.

Zion’s spectacular scenery attracts visitors from all over the world. Visitation to the park was about 3 million people in 2012. Visitors to Zion enjoy deep cool canyons, high wooded plateaus, and vast warm deserts. Zion offers a variety of recreational opportunities and activities including driving scenic roads, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, photography, and wildlife viewing, to name a few. Park Map

To Cedar City, Cedar Breaks National Monument, amp and Salt Lake City C C re ek

Exit 42 Horse Ranch Mountain 15 8726ft 2659m

North Fork

Taylor Creek Ta ylor C reek anyon M Tra Exit C s iddl il b R PARIA e F 40 lo o POI ork o a NT Double K d Arch So uth Alcove Lee Pass Fork Kolob Canyons Trailhead Kolob O Visitor Center A Canyons KOLOB K Willis 5074ft Viewpoint il l Creek i Nagunt Mesa ra Kolob V 1546m a T Chasm

r Reservoir A 7785ft T Lake 2372m k 8118ft L k e L e Timber Creek e r 2475m E e C Y Overlook r EAR TRAP CANYONS B E C in Trail L n rk i Ve CANYON IN B k a A U r T L B e 8055ft UN

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Kolob Peak E L TO R Kolob Arch C E T B S 8933ft S TIM Gregory Butte Trail Langston Mountain

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Falls Rock N 2245m O n i Y Exit k N 27 r A e C

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a NATIONAL rk O L o Grapevine F CH ht O E Trailhead Rig Right Fork Y Angels Trailhead Landing N The Great White Throne APS E C E C 6744ft a A H A Stave s O NY t N ON A 2056m Spring R o S U i r m th E G Toquerville C The Grotto Tr F A a o i r M R l k To 89 at Mt Carmel Junction,

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E r H R T D Spring through fall, Zion

R c 9 N i Canyon Scenic Drive is open

U n The Sentinel H E e to shuttle buses only. Private h T V I 7157ft O c H t R F G I S East Entrance d r Oilwell (ruins) O I N 2181m vehicles are not allowed a o N Z n ighway o S o beyond Canyon Junction. el H R R rm y The East Temple Ca E Altar of Sacrifice n t (restrooms e a 7709ft un c W 7505ft C o closed in a M Checkerboard O 2350m r 2288m Canyon Junction n - Mesa winter) r T o n e i io 5700ft T Z Z 6670ft Vehicles pulling trailers Spring Canyon Overlook 1737m b 2033m lo not recommended. Zion Human History Museum Trail Tunnel o 9 K Narrow winding road La Verkin with steep grades. Upper The West Temple Virgin W Tunnel section not plowed in Crater Hill as 7810ft 3550ft h No bikes or pedestrians allowed. winter. 5192ft s 2380m n 1082m h i Ask about restrictions on large 1582m s g South Entrance South a g o vehicles. W c S Mount Kinesava Zion Canyon Theater 7285ft 2220m Springdale Springdale/Zion Canyon Shuttle 3920ft Zion Canyon Visitor Center

and Zion-Mount Carmel Highway 1195m V s Watchman t r tunnel information i i r e To 15 exit 16, g p i l v 9 n a i 9 St George, o sh R C A N Y O N and Las Vegas, a The Watchman C W in 6545ft E A P Nevada r Chin rg W e le i 1995m U b Tra V N R u i U l k i H r R Hurricane v o A e F P r 59 Coalpits Wash er h Riv t rgin To Pipe Spring National Monument and r i k V o r Grand Canyon National Park Fo Rockville N t Grafton 3747ft s (ghost town) Ea North 1142m 0 1 2 3 4 5 Kilometers Bridge Chinle Trailhead Road 0 1 2 3 4 5 Miles Road turn on Anasazi Way fton Gra Shuttle Information Other Visitor Information Unpaved roads are Springdale shuttle Paved road open to Ranger station Campground impassable when wet. route private vehicles Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway may be Zion Canyon shuttle Unpaved road Drinking water Primitive closed in winter.

y route and shuttle stop (impassable when wet) campground a w ck sonian B Ba Spring through fall, Zion Overlook/parking Restrooms ith utte Scenic m Canyon Scenic Drive is open to S shuttle buses only. Park your Trail Picnic area To 59 , Pipe Spring National Monument, car and ride the shuttle. and Grand Canyon National Park Purpose Significance

Significance statements express why Zion National Park resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit.

• Zion is a geologic showcase of brilliantly colored strata highlighted by sheer Navajo sandstone cliffs that are among the highest in the world and expose ancient remnants of the largest known sand dune system. Geologic processes continue today as the free-flowing Virgin River rapidly cuts into the margin of the Colorado Plateau, incising a multitude of deep, narrow canyons. An abundance of canyon springs, fed by groundwater, create hanging gardens and grottos that support endemic varieties of flora and fauna. These exceptional features and processes contribute to the outstanding scenery and scientific value of the park.

• Zion National Park’s range of topography and location at the juncture of the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, and Great Basin ecoregions have created the environment for a wide variety of life forms, including rare and endemic species that exist only in this small geographic area. This diversity of life The purpose of Zion National Park forms provides opportunities for valuable scientific research. is to preserve the dramatic geology including Zion Canyon and a labyrinth of deep and brilliantly colored Navajo sandstone canyons formed by extraordinary processes of erosion at the margin of the Colorado Plateau; to safeguard the park’s wilderness character and its wild and scenic river values; to protect evidence of human history; and to provide for scientific research and the enjoyment and enlightenment of the public. • In a canyon environment, Zion preserves human history of the Ancestral Puebloan, Paiute, pioneers, early 20th century tourism, and NPS development along the Virgin River. The remarkable integrity of these resources provides a setting ideal for future education and research.

• Zion National Park is a world-renowned destination that offers opportunities for a range of recreational and educational experiences including passive activities and high adventure excursions. Visitors are able to step inside the scenery and can find themselves surrounded by narrow cliff walls in places of extraordinary scale such as the Virgin River Narrows. These experiences often create profound emotional and personal connections for a diversity of visitors.

• The Zion Wilderness preserves the undeveloped character and natural environment of the spectacular network of colorful deep sandstone canyons, high forested plateaus, and striking rock towers, as well as opportunities for visitors to experience a strong sense of solitude and remoteness from civilization.

• Utah’s first designated wild and scenic rivers flow through the park carving a colorful labyrinth of canyons across layers of time. These rivers, fed by natural undiminished spring flows from the Navajo sandstone aquifers and sculpted by unimpeded torrents of flood waters, have an ecological value that far exceeds their spatial extent in the park. Fundamental Resources and Values

Fundamental resources and values are those features, • Convergence of Ecoregions. The convergence of systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, and Great Basin smells, or other attributes determined to merit primary ecoregions combined with the vertical relief and high consideration during planning and management processes concentration of canyons has provided a diversity of habitats because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the for the array of life forms found in Zion National Park, park and maintaining its significance. including rare, endangered, and endemic species.

• Geologic Showcase. Zion’s spectacular sedimentary layers • Natural Resource Quality and Function. The quality of form the center of the Grand Staircase, the great regional air, water, vegetation, and wildlife resources in Zion National sequence of cliffs and slopes linking the ancient rocks Park are generally preserved, in some cases by allowing of Grand Canyon, through the Mesozoic layers of Zion, natural processes and natural disturbance regimes (such as fires, floods, and rockfalls) to exist, thereby promoting an to the high plateaus of Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. environment predominated by natural processes. Wildland Zion contains the finest exposure of Navajo sandstone, fire, in particular, provides the natural disturbance regime in places exceeding 2,000 feet in thickness, a remnant of that maintains many of the park’s ecosystems and is critical the largest sand dune system known to have existed on to maintaining wilderness character and associated natural the planet. In addition to the dramatic high cliffs, the park resource values. displays a landscape modified by recent volcanism and an exceptionally rapid rate of erosion. These natural processes • Wilderness Character. Eighty-four percent of Zion is have produced large landslides, inverted valleys, deep slot designated wilderness, managed with restraint and humility canyons, hanging valleys, and have exposed significant to protect the natural paleontological resources. character of the landscape. The vast • Water Shapes the Landscape. The park’s many free- majority of this flowing rivers carry powerful flash floods and tremendous wilderness is entirely sediment loads, which act together as the primary agents of undeveloped with no erosion. These rivers continue to carve into the edge of the trails, campsites, or Colorado Plateau, structures. Even in shaping Zion’s a park with millions dramatic scenery. of visitors each year By virtue of rivers one can explore and cutting through experience the sights the water-bearing and sounds Navajo sandstone, of solitude. numerous canyon • Wild and Scenic springs, fed by Rivers. Zion’s wild groundwater, and scenic rivers create hanging provide for a wide gardens and range of river values and are composed of more than 140 seeping alcoves miles of free-flowing, largely undeveloped water courses that form moist that provide habitat for six native fish species. In recent oases in a desert geologic time, the rivers have sliced though rock layers environment and thousands of feet thick. The carved canyons provide habitat sustain perennial for the threatened Mexican spotted owl and cool canyon river flows. microclimates are home to hanging gardens where the endemic Zion snail resides. • The Remnants of Humanity’s Past. The cultural resources Zion National Park contains other resources and values that in Zion National Park encompass a continuum of human may not be fundamental to the purpose and significance of experience of both native and nonnative people. The the park, but are important to consider in management and nationally significant Parunuweap Canyon Archeological planning decisions. These are referred to as other important District contains “type” sites through which the Virgin resources and values. Branch of the Anasazi were initially recognized as a • An Engineered Way of Life. The Zion Lodge / Birch distinctive regional manifestation of Ancestral Puebloan Creek Historic District represents early economic culture. For contemporary people, including American development and tourism inside the Grand Circle and Indians and European American descendants of pioneers, Southern Utah. Residences and maintenance buildings many of the park’s cultural sites, objects, landscapes, and in the Oak Creek and Pine Creek historic districts natural resources remain important touchstones that are intricate pieces of early NPS history representing contribute to group identity and heritage. naturalistic / NPS-rustic construction. The Zion-Mt. • Opportunities for Connection to the Resources. Zion Carmel Highway and tunnel represent the determination, National Park provides its visitors a wide range of high- innovation, and engineering feats of the early 20th century. quality recreational experiences through exceptional Other roads, trails, ditches, bridges, cabins, and remnants infrastructure and services, educational opportunities, and of sawmills and homesteads showcase early pioneering resources of high integrity. Zion National Park interprets park efforts inside Zion National Park and NPS efforts to resource meanings, research, and management initiatives to develop facilities for visitor access and accommodation. encourage inspiration, learning, and stewardship. Parunuweap Canyon contains prehistoric, • Preserving and Studying the Natural and Cultural intact, and valuable History of Zion. Museum and archival collections record cultural resources that Zion’s natural and cultural history. Park collections illuminate provide a valuable insight the stories of American Indians, pioneers, NPS history, and to prehistoric ways of the park’s complex natural environment—documenting a life. Zion preserves and long and highly active history of scientific study and scholarly studies these diverse research. The collection also demonstrates the ongoing cultures and their importance of continued scientific study to develop and engineered ways of life in implement best management practices. the desert environment. Interpretive Themes

Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park purpose, significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all of the park significances and fundamental resources and values.

• The geologic features of Zion National Park, including the premier exposure of Navajo sandstone, the brilliantly colored rock layers, and Zion’s place in the Grand Staircase, are both scientifically significant and allow us to immerse ourselves within their immense scope of size and time.

• The wild and scenic Virgin River and its tributaries are the lifeblood of Zion National Park, continuing to carve with powerful force as they drop uncontrolled through the landscape, to reveal Zion’s geologic history, shape majestic canyons, and provide a unique watery oasis amidst the arid land.

• Located at the convergence of three ecoregions, Zion National Park contains a richness and diversity of flora and fauna that belies the park’s extreme topography and arid conditions.

• The undeveloped vast high plateaus and intimate sandstone canyons of Zion National Park and its designated wilderness provide unparalleled opportunities for a limited number of visitors to experience solitude, adventure, inspiration, and introspection in a natural environment, while creating a backdrop for all to appreciate the importance of protecting wild places.

• Zion National Park is the setting for a legacy of generations of people, all of whom lived their lives deeply connected to this landscape.