We recently traveled with our daughter’s family to Zion National Park in southeastern Utah. It was our first trip to Zion and the timing was perfect! The weather was superb every day, and we avoided the summer crowds.

Zion National Park is one of 63 magnificent National Parks in the United States, protected and operated by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Nomadic indigenous groups were the first to inhabit the Mukuntuweap/Zion region, the area now known as Zion National Park, thousands of years ago! Puebloan, Fremont, and later, Southern Paiute Indians continued to populate the area for centuries.

The first European American settlers, Mormon pioneers, arrived in the area in the late 1800s. They named the area Zion, which is ancient Hebrew for “sanctuary” or “refuge.” (National Park Service)

Pioneering surveyors who later recognized the splendor of the region, encouraged U.S. President Taft to protect it. Taft set aside approximately 16,000 acres for Mukuntuweap National Monument on July 31, 1909, ‘to preserve its “many natural features of unusual archaeologic, geologic, and geographic interest” (Proc No. 877).’ (National Park Service)

The proclamation noted the “labyrinth of remarkable canyons with highly ornate and beautifully colored walls, in which are plainly recorded the geological events of past ages.”

In 1918, Munkuntuweap National Monument became Zion National Monument, and in 1919 the named changed again to Zion National Park. (National Park Service)

Contemporary Native Americans still live on and off reservations throughout the Southwest today, committed to maintaining and practicing their rich cultural traditions.

In addition to countless books and other published materials about Zion National Park, I highly recommend checking out the National Park Service website, which has a wealth of information about all of the hiking, camping, and other opportunities at Zion: https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm

The views are especially breathtaking at sunrise!!

All the photos on this post are iPhone photos, and I’m grateful to my husband, daughter and son-in-law for sharing theirs along with my own shots.

As you travel through the canyon, you are always looking up! Zion Canyon is a spectacular chasm between sheer walls of Navajo sandstone towering more than 2000 feet above the canyon floor. (Water, Rock, & Time, the Geologic Story of Zion National Park, 2nd Ed. 2019, by Robert L. Eves, p. 16)

Everything in Zion takes life from the Virgin River’s scarce desert waters. Water flows, and solid rock melts into cliffs and towers. (Zion Brochure)

Informative exhibits and displays at the Visitor Center and scheduled Ranger Talks and Tours guide visitors of all ages, abilities, and interest levels.

Universally known as the Grand Staircase, the formations contain excellent exposures of earth history in each step. We might imagine each step as a book, each formation as a chapter in the book, and each rock layer as a page. (Water, Rock, & Time, the Geologic Story of Zion National Park, 2nd Ed.. 2019, by Robert L. Eves, p. 22)

One of Zion’s many immense stone arches, pointed out by the Park Ranger at a shuttle stop.

One of the iconic sites at Zion is the Checkerboard Mesa, above, with its massive horizontal and vertical grooves.

What a treat to come upon this happy herd of bison refreshing themselves at a watering hole, just after leaving Zion.