10 Interesting Facts about Zion National Park

These following facts about Zion National Park might make you want to visit this park once. If you really love to travel around the world and have enough time for it, then visiting Zion National Park will be one of the most interesting trips to do. Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile park is Zion Canyon, which is 24 km long and up to 800 m deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. To get to know more about this park, below are some other facts about Zion National Park you may like.

Facts about Zion National Park 1: Animal Diversity

Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert regions, the park’s unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park’s four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland and coniferous forest.

Facts about Zion National Park 2: History

Archaeologists have divided the long span of Zion’s human history into three cultural periods: the Archaic, Protohistoric and Historic periods. Each period is characterized by distinctive technological and social adaptations.

Facts about Zion National Park - Zion National Park

Facts about Zion National Park – Zion National Park

Facts about Zion National Park 3: Archaic Period

The first human presence in the region dates to 8,000 years ago, when family groups camped where they could hunt or collect plants and seeds. About 2,000 years ago, some groups began growing corn and other crops, leading to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Facts about Zion National Park 4: Infrastructure Movement

Work on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway started in 1927 to enable reliable access between Springdale and the east side of the park. The road opened in 1930 and park visitation and travel in the area greatly increased.

Facts about Zion National Park - Entrance

Facts about Zion National Park – Entrance

Facts about Zion National Park 5: Biology

The Great Basin, Mojave Desert and Colorado Plateau converge at Zion and the Kolob canyons. This, along with the varied topography of canyon-mesa country, differing soil types, and uneven water availability, provides diverse habitat for the equally diverse mix of plants and animals that live in the area.

Facts about Zion National Park 6: Activities

Seven trails with round-trip times of half an hour (Weeping Rock) to 4 hours are found in Zion Canyon. Two popular trails, Taylor Creek (4 hours round trip) and Kolob Arch (8 hours round trip), are in the Kolob Canyons section of the park, near Cedar City. Hiking up into The Narrows from the Temple of Sinawava is popular in summer.

Facts about Zion National Park - Start of Zion Narrows Trail

Facts about Zion National Park – Start of Zion Narrows Trail

Facts about Zion National Park 7: Recent History

Zion Canyon Scenic Drive provides access to Zion Canyon. Traffic congestion in the narrow canyon was recognized as a major problem in the 1990s and a public transportation system using propane-powered shuttle buses was instituted in the year 2000.As part of its shuttle fleet, Zion has two electric trams each holding up to 36 passengers

Facts about Zion National Park 8: Protection and Tourism

Paintings of the canyon by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh were exhibited at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904,followed by a glowing article in “Scriber’s Magazine” the next year. That, along with previously created photographs, paintings, and reports, led to U.S. President William Howard Taft’s proclamation on July 31, 1909 that created Mukuntuweap National Monument.

Facts about Zion National Park - Virgin River

Facts about Zion National Park – Virgin River

Facts about Zion National Park 9: Climate

Spring weather is unpredictable, with stormy, wet days being common, mixed with occasional warm, sunny weather.

Facts about Zion National Park 10: Features of the Park

Notable geographical features of the park include: Virgin River Narrows, Emerald Pools, Hidden Canyon, Angels Landing, The great White Throne, Checkerboard Mesa, The Three Patriarchs and Kolob Arch.

Facts about Zion National Park - Dellenbaugh's Painting

Facts about Zion National Park – Dellenbaugh’s Painting

Those facts about Zion National Park should hopefully be one of your reasons to visit the park. One of the most beautiful things in the park is its scenery. Hope those Zion National Park facts would be really interesting for you to read.

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