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Zion National Park

Hoodoo's along the Zion-Mt. Carmel Hwy near the East Entrance to the Park.

East Zion is known as "slick rock" country. where the rocks are a mixture of white and varied tints of brown or orange, lacking much of the iron-oxide that the other layers of sandstone have. The geology here is interesting showcasing rock formations which have eroded over millions of years to form various patterns and shapes such as that seen on Checkerboard Mesa. See the photo of Checkerboard at the top of this page and to the left.

Look at the photos of towering mountains of Zion and imagine the geology history of the area.The first layers of rock were forming more than 225 million years ago when Zion was a sea floor. Eventually the area became the delta of a river and then finally the bottom of a lake. About 150 million years ago dunes of sand covered the entire Zion area, ground water provided calcium carbonate which moved through the dunes, and over time it compacted and held the sand together. Changing ever more over vast amounts of time, layers of rock were laid down on top of the sandstone, much of which eventually eroding away. Activity as recent as four million years ago began to work, moving the Colorado Plateau upward. The Virgin River, then much stronger than the gentle stream you see today, literally carved its way through Zion Canyon taking away debris as it flowed down canyon. Even today the amount of sediment carried by the rivers flow to the Colorado river weighs in at over a million tons! As nature runs its course, one day, far in the future the great monoliths of Zion National Park will be reduced to a flat plain.

	To the right is the short tunnel. The tunnel completion marked the opening of the Zion-Mt.Carmel Hwy in 1929.
The hwy through Zion and both tunnel are open to traffic year-roundm while the short drive into Zion Canyon is only by shuttle.
	The 1.1 mile long tunnel. Traffic is stopped at both ends of this tunnel to allow larger vehicles to pass through easily.

The Legend of the Great Thunderbird has it's root in reality. The endangered California Condor is often thought to be this mythical creature. There are less than 200 of this magnifcent creature still alive today. The Condor has made it's home in the saftey of Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon.

Above is a Photo of an actual Ancient Indian Petroglyph of a Thunderbird. A great variety of Petroplyphs are found in the Parks, reminders of the creativity of those that came before.