Zion National Park National Park Service Zion Utah U.S. Department of the Interior All this is the music of waters. John Wesley Powell, 1895 Large photo: Towers of the Virgin and The West Temple © TOM BEAN Wrought by Water Immutable yet ever changing, the Everything in Zion takes life from the multiplies with each slope, aspect, Green canyons, red cliffs, cliffs of Zion stand resolute, a glow­ Virgin River’s scarce desert waters. and soil type, with each minute blue skies: Zion’s colors can ing presence in late day, a wild calm. Water flows, and solid rock melts into change in precipitation or tempera­ stop you in your tracks , as Melodies of waters soothe desert­ cliffs and towers. Landscape changes ture. Add to these influences species the three photos at left show. parched ears, streams twinkle over as canyons deepen to create forested from nearby ecosystems, and Zion Water creates emerald oases stone, wren song cascades from red­ highlands and lowland deserts. A rib­ becomes an assemblage of plants, of lush plants in an otherwise rock cliffs, cottonwood leaves jitter bon of green marks the river’s course and thus of animals, found nowhere red desert landscape. Red on the breeze. But when lightning as diverse plants and animals take else exactly like this. Although the rocks of a remarkable slot flashes waterfalls erupt from dry shelter and thrive in this canyon southwestern desert may look homo­ canyon reveal how rushing cliffs, and floods flash down water­ oasis. From the beginning people geneous, each fold, wrinkle, bend, waters forcefully shaped its narrow and twisting walls. less canyons exploding log jams, hurl­ sought this place, this sanctuary in slope, mesa top, and canyon bottom Tinted blue by sky, winter’s ing boulders, croaking wild joyous­ the desert’s dry reaches. The very creates its unique conditions. This un­ snow highlights the land- ness, and dancing stone and water name Zion, meaning ”promised land,” likely desert harbors a mosaic of envi­ scape, and then melts to feed and time. Zion is alive with move­ evokes its significance. ronments, each fine­tuned to place. scouring river torrents in RSCHMANN i LL spring. ment, a river of life al­­ways here and Welcome to the one called Zion. Ti OM always changing. More than the river’s music and the T © LAURENCE PARENT © FRED H © soaring heights alone, Zion’s nature U GREAT E A A T L BASIN P 11,307 ft 3,446 m Bryce Canyon DESERT O National Park D Cedar Breaks Geologic Contrasts Create Diversity A National Monument R P i n f s It’s ironic, in this seemingly unending Colo rado Plateau waters run. Zion’s 130,000­square­mile mass of rock, O k C l i f The Vermilion Cliffs, White desert, that water creates most of gathered waters, known as the Virgin over 10,000 feet above sea level. L O Cliffs, and Pink Cliffs (dia- what we see. North of Zion, rain fall­ River, traverse Mojave Desert lands Rain’s watery fingers then worked C gram at left) are part of the i t e ing on the 11,000­foot­high Colorado and join the Colorado River in Lake the Plateau’s minute cracks, loosening W h C l i f Kolob Zion f s Grand Stair case, the south- grains and widening fractures—and Zi Plateau races downhill, slices Zion’s Mead’s handmade basin before com­ Canyons on C western edge of the Colorado National a relatively soft layers, and pushes its pleting their Pacific­bound journey. eroding today’s mighty canyons. n y H o Pla teau. The Bryce Canyon n debris off the Plateau’s southern These processes continue; rivers still u Park r and Cedar Breaks amphithe- r edge. This edge is not abrupt, but it Long before today’s landscape even deposit sediments that turn to stone, i c aters are etched into the Pink steps down in a series of cliffs and appeared, streams, oceans, deserts, earthquakes still punctuate the Pla­ a n Cliffs at the top of the Grand slopes known as the Grand Staircase. and volcanos deposited thousands of teau’s upward journey, and erosion e C r Stair case. e LL l v i Above Zion, topping the Staircase, feet of mud, lime, sand, and ash. The pries rockfalls from Zion’s seemingly i R i f f n s g i Bryce Canyon’s crenellated edges immense pressure and heat of accu­ immutable cliffs. Eventu ally, this i r l i o n C l i f f s V r m i e © TOM T form as water trickles off the Plateau. mulating sediments turned lower lay­ beautiful canyon will melt away and V The Kolob Canyons and Hur ricane Cliffs(pho - th Below Zion, Grand Canyon forms the ers to stone. Later, underground forces others will form. All it takes is time. Nor 3,100 ft to above and diagram at left) are at the western lowest rung into which 90 percent of uplifted the Colorado Plateau, a 945 m edge of the massive, uplifted Colorado Plateau Zion TEMPLE CAP FORMATION • COLORADO (map at left). PLATEAU NAVAJO SANDSTONE Navajo sandstone’s sweeping lines of contrasting color record the move­ Stratigraphy, ments of sand dunes. the study of rock layers, reveals the Zion Canyon Kayenta mudstone features dinosaur tracks. relative age of the rocks before you at KAYENTA FORMATION Lower Moenave deposits testify to pooling waters; upper ones indicate Zion. These rocks formed in environ­ MOENAVE FORMATION swift­moving floods. ments as varied as sand dunes and CHINLE FORMATION shallow sea bottoms. PETRIFIED FOREST MEMBER Chinle Formation shales are soft and contain petrified wood. © DAViD PETTiT Shinarump Conglomerate is composed of varied sizes of eroded SHINARUMP CONGLOMERATE Moenkopi rubble. MOENKOPI FORMATION The Moenkopi Formation records a shallow sea withdrawing, so the marine fossils differ in its bottom and top layers. Virgin River In a Haven of Habitats NPS People have occupied the landscape as Ancestral Puebloans. The diverse Westward expansion eventually Zion’s beauty and bounty In the 1800s, popular artist BRARY OF CONGRESS BRARY i of what is now Zion National Park for geological setting gave them a com­ brought new settlers to the canyon. have beckoned to humans L Thomas Moran captured the thousands of years. Zion’s first resi­ bination rare in deserts: terraces to In the 1860s, early Mormon pioneers over a great span of time. majesty of Zion Canyon (left) dents tracked mammoths, camels, and grow food, a river for water, and an came to the region and built small This corn and its storage jar, that sparked making it a park other mammals though open desert adequate growing season. On the communities and farmed the river found in the park, are over and a premier American va- and sheltered canyons. With climate Colorado Plateau, crops grow best terraces. Through hard work and 1,000 years old. cation destination (far left in change, disease, and overhunting, between 5,000 and 7,000 feet of ele­ faith, the new residents endured in 1929). Water both fashions these animals died out 8,000 years vation, which makes Zion’s elevations a landscape where flash floods de­ beauty and supports the rich- ago. Hunters adapted by hunting nearly ideal. But drought, resource stroyed towns and drought burned ness that makes Zion such a smaller animals and gathering food. depletion, and migrations eventually crops. The same threats exist today, haven of habitats. As resources kept diminishing, people decreased the Ancestral Puebloans’ but Zion daily draws new explorers adjusted to suit their location. One dominance. The Southern Paiute peo­ to experience the beauty and the desert culture, evident here still, ple who followed brought traditions sanctuary of this place that countless evolved over the next 1,500 years as suited to the harsh desert climate and generations have considered home. a community of farmers now known thrived here. NPS Zion’s Natural Diversity The Nature of Sanctuary Tucked in niches, hidden in soil, peeking from At the lowest elevations, Mojave Desert spe- ES l NPS ING RIM cliffs, or scampering between our feet, an cies—desert tortoise and honey mesquite— SCIENCE OF ENN amaz ing array of plants and animals thrive in infiltrate Zion’s dry, south-facing canyons. At l G D & BUFF CORSI Zion National Park. Tiny piñon mice, golden mid-elevations, Great Basin Desert species like l OYD l l GERA ACADEMY . eagles, mountain lions—all thrive in Zion’s shadscale and big sagebrush mingle with the R many habitats. Park elevations range from Colorado Plateau’s bigtooth maple and Utah D IFORNIA l IFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES l l 3,600 to 8,700 feet and provide vastly differ- juniper. Zion’s biotic diversity is the result of l CA © ent environments. Fir, ponderosa pine, and these three communities coming together in © CA aspen prefer snowy high c ountry winters, one location. while piñon, cliffrose, and mesquite flourish in the desert’s heat. Part of Zion’s uniqueness comes from its geol- D & BUFF CORSI © CA D & BUFF CORSI © CA l Sego lily l ogy. Great Basin and Mojave Desert soils tend Steller’s jay Peregrine falcon GERA Water, and the lack of it, decides what grows to be similar over great distances. But Zion’s GERA where. On the plateau, above the canyon rim, stacked prehistoric environments erode into Quaking aspen Elk annual precipitation tops 26 inches. In this rel- many soils. The Chinle Formation’s ancient l atively cool and moist environment, sego lil- lakes and volcanic ash, for example, corrode NPS RICH ies sprout under greenleaf manzanita, yellow- into a soil rich in the poison ous mineral sele- CANYON l ARRY U ARRY bellied marmots scurry between white fir, and nium.