5/15/09 - Zion (Continued)

Ok, so if you're into science and you have a bit of a rugged spirit, I have the perfect job for you: a park ranger! We took the most excellent bus tour this morning led by a ranger who was been with Zion for 13 years. A trained geologist and avid rock climber, you could tell the guy was passionate about nature and it really came through in his tour. He did a wonderful job relating the geological and cultural history of the region. I'll try to recite some of the facts that I found interesting.

- Zion was declared a national monument by President Taft in 1909 and a national park by Congress in 1919, making it one of the oldest parks in the country.

- Zion contains the largest sandstone cliffs in the world.

- Depending on how you measure it, Zion also holds the largest stone monolith in the world: the White Throne. The reason it depends on how you measure it is because a park in Australia has a monolith that is half the height but double the width and they claim to have the largest monolith in the world.

- The water we see "weeping" from the sandstone has taken 2,000 years to percolate out of the rock. Thus, the water we see was actually rain in the time of Julius Caesar.

- Zion contains more plant species than the entire state of Hawaii.

- Zion means "place of refuge" and it was named by Mormon settlers who moved to Utah for freedom to worship.

- Zion is unique in that it contains several different micro climates -- from pine forests to arid deserts.

As you can probably tell, it was a very informative tour!

After our tour, we jumped into Hamish and took him along the public road into the park, up the eastern switchbacks, back through the 1.1 mile tunnel bored through a mountain (thanks, by the way, to the workers who built this road and tunnel back in the 1920s -- they lived in rail cars and worked 15 hours a day all for $1.50 daily!) to the Canyon Overlook trailhead.

A short 1-mile roundtrip, the trail took about 30 minutes to walk up to an outlook of the entire canyon. It was simply gorgeous. It was one of those moments when I just thought: Man, I'm lucky to be here. Lately I have begun to take being off work for granted, but at certain points on this trip (even when I was bed-ridden w/ a stomach bug in the Grand Canyon) I couldn't help but think that 2 months ago I was spending 8 hours a day in an office and now here I am seeing the world!

After our mini-summit we returned to Hamish and made our way back to the park entrance -- it was Ashlee's turn to guide Hamish through the tunnel.

We just ate a tasty lunch at the deli outside the park and now Ashlee is shopping (don't worry, she doesn't have her purse with her) while I am sitting her writing this in the cool shade staring at the brilliant blue sky towering over the already towering sandstone cliffs while a healthy breeze is rustling the cottonwood trees hanging overhead.

Goodbye, Zion National Park!