Zion National Park: Where Sand Castles Crown Desert Canyons

It's the slot canyon that all other slot canyons are compared to: Zion National Park's Virgin River Narrows, ranked 5^th out of America's best 100 adventures by National Geographic Adventure Magazine. Here, sheer sandstone walls close in around you, stretching so far into the sky that barely a drop of sunlight reaches the floor of the canyon. The Virgin River, with "the look of a creek and the muscle of the Colorado," flows around you. The river, your guide explains, almost single handedly carved the profound rock gorge of Zion Canyon. It began its carving more than 13 million years ago and continues its work today.

Southwestern Utah and the region encompassing the 229-square mile Zion National Park is one of the most geologically fascinating and stunningly beautiful places on earth. Hike streamside up Kolob Canyon beneath1,600-foot towering sandstone walls and along the cottonwood-lined banks of Taylor Creek to the weeping walls and unexpected flora of Double Arch Alcove. Explore rim country with a hike to Angel’s Landing, 1,200 feet above the valley floor. At night, unwind with a well-deserved soak in an open-air hot tub and marvel at the brilliance of Zion's star-lit sky.

Relax your mind, energize your body ignite the adventurer within with an Austin-Lehman Zion National Park vacation.

Did You Know…

Zion National Park will celebrate a "Century of Sanctuary" in 2009. Zion was set aside as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Howard Taft on July 31, 1909.
Kolob Arch, located deep in the backcountry of Zion National Park, is one of the largest freestanding arches in the world.
At approximately 2:00 am, April 12, 1995, a naturally occurring landslide blocked the Virgin River in Zion Canyon about ½ mile north of the main park road trapping 430 people at Zion Lodge. It took 22 hours to cut an emergency detour road from the east wall of the canyon. Despite regular occurrences no one has ever been killed by a rock fall in the history of Zion National Park.
The bottom layer of rock at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at the Grand Canyon representing a geological range dating from 65 to over 500 million years ago.
Zion, a Hebrew word meaning “a place of peace and relaxation,” was given to the canyon by Mormon Pioneers in the 1860s. Kolob, in Mormon theology, is a heavenly place close to God.

Click below for more information on Austin-Lehman's Zion National Park vacations:

Bryce/Zion - Red Rock Wonders >

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