The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-16
OASIS OF SUBLIME BEAUTY

Lo Roy Jeffers, in I4eslie's,
 Most brilliantly colored and in some ways the most striking of our national parks, Zion is as yet but little known, although 1t is destined to become world famous. While it is not on the scale of the Grand can yon of the Colorado in Arizona, and is more easily comprehended, this rainbow of the desert has a peculiar fascination for all who have once seen it.
 Formerly inaccessible to the ordi- nary traveller, it is now convenient and interesting of approach in sum mer. At Lund, wool-shipping point on the Los Angeles and Salt Lake railway, an auto stage leaves daily for z by way of Cedar city It is also near the auto route of the Arrowhead trail from Salt Lake city O. Los Angeles.
 Zion is our most recently created national park, comprising 120 square miles of marvellous canyons and mountain scenery. The canyon itself is Is miles in length, narrowing from half a mile to 25 or 30 feet, with walls of 1000 to 5000 feet in height. But the park comprises several other canyons as well, which no one has explored; much wonderful scenery, of which only distant glimpses have been secured; and portion of the fantastic Colob plateau, which only handful of venturesome travellers have visited.
 From the high plateaus of Utah, with their striking white and deep pink cliffs. to the depths of Zion canyon, upward of 10000 feet of "a . tA VipW It is often wonderfully eroded into natural bridges. arches and alcoves. Yosemite-like domes and a multitude of architectural forms; while its col bring is unsurpassed anywhere in nature.
 All the great walls and temples are unbelievably painted in every shade of red, from carmine to rose pink and are capped with almost pure white sandstone covered with green trees and the blue sky. There are layers of chocolate. of maroon and of cherry. streaked with black. where streams have fallen. hanging garden of ferns and vines decorates a cliff by the trail. while cottonwood and willows by the streams afford enchanting vistas on every hand
 Architecture of collosaI order everywhere astonishes the eye, lead ing it upward to Gothic heights not sculptured by man. At sunset hour the canyon is transfigured with pur- pie haze. and its peaks are lit with rosy alpine glow. The silence and the peace of the Eternal often finger within this vast temple and pervade the heart of the true worshipper.
 At its entrance, Zion is guarded ty the great East and West temples. Beyond it is a stretch of colorful territory where the Three Patriarchs in crimson robes hold stately court. In the heart of the canyon the mighty rock of Angels Landing tow CTS far above the Rio Virgin; while Fl Gobernador, the Great White Throne. is a majestic flat-topped pyramid of red and white sandstone. Monolithic and dark red, the Great Organ greets one at the bend of the river; and reaching far into the blue sky at the Narrows, Is the Mountain of Mystery. Just beyond, the stream freauently fills the floor of the can yon, and it's dangerous ouicksands and current force back the most ad- venturous of horses. Eventually the overhAnging walls of 1000 feet near iy skut off the sky, and the darkencd stream Is only few feet in width.
 Only one tran leaves the cdhyoa' starting beneath Cable Mountain, from whose summit logs are swung, 7,70o feet in air into Zion. and the, taken out to the little villages. After leaving the inner walls, the trail climbs through . region of curiously cross -bedded sandstone leading to Hicks Point where there is . glori- GUS view into the canyon. and of the wild surrounding country. The whole region adjacent to the canyon IS ., yet unmapped