The Washington times., 1925-05-20
NEW NATIONAL
PARK THROWN
OPEN
Scenic Wonderland OF Utan
Dedicated-AIl Ready
for Visitors
By International News Service.

Hailed as notable addition TO
the sroun of national parks whose
accessibility makes them great rec
reatfon centers, the scenic wohner
land embracing Zion National earK'
Cedar Breaks and Bryce canyon
in Southern Utah, was thrown open
on May 10 in celebration tnat
started, full tilt. rail ana motor
transport service, national PARK
lodges and other conveniences or
modern travel
The opening, in which Governor
George H. Dern and Senator Reeo
Smoot, of Utah, as well as other
nationally prominent officials. par
ticipated, was the climax of develop
nent carried on by State and Fed
eral governments, National Park
Service. the Forest Service and the
Union Pacific System, in which
large sums have been expended for
rail line, modern highways and other
improvements
on the signal given by Governor
Dern the whole new park system
sprang into being over a region
which even a brief ten years ago
was little more than romantic
myth to the outside world-known
only by the vague tales or chance
travellers.
Park Refuge.
The story of Zion National Park
is as colorful as one of it's own
chromatic peaks. First discovered
BY the early Mormon pioneers, when
Brigham Young colonized the beau
tiful Dixie" country of Southern
Utah, the great multicolored gorge
became a place of refuge from fire.
uuent Indian raids. The savages
held the gigantic abyss in great
fear and avoided it at all costs.
Even the war trail Of the dreaded
Nayaios circled it in wide detour
across the Iplateaus. To the set
tiers it became Little Zion," after
Zion. now Salt Lake City, the
refuge of the Mormon faith to the
North.
Only occasional travellers to the
isolated settlements brought strange
tales to the outside" and 1t was
not until the last decade that It's
tremendous depths, majestic spaces
and indescribable coloring com
menced to become generally known.
It was finally set aside as a ma
tional monument by the Govern
ment, and in 1919 it was made
national park.
Zion itself is but the center OF
group. of equally spectacular attrac:
tions. The multicolored fairyland
of Bryce Canyon lies a short dis
tance to the eastward. Cedar
Breaks, a monster bowl eroded in
hundreds of iridescent shades, Is
cut out of the Kolob Plateau to
the North, while the portals to
Zion are reached through the Dixie
country to the south.
Build Railroad.
While its fame as a scenic won
der grew nationwide, comparatively
few visitors were heretofore able
to see ii because of lack of ac-
commodations This year railroad
line ia built to the the gateway at
Cedar City, where the Hotel FL Es-
calante has been opened. National
park lodges with all attendant
facilities, are available in Zion
Canyon and at Bryce the motor
transportation system will be run
on the loop between Cedar City,
Zion. Bryce and Cedar Breaks, with
a, connecting line to the North RIM
of the Grand Canyon. The develop
ment will enable the wonderland
to be opened for the first time
with accommodations to properly
care for a volume of travel in simi-
lar man Ter to Yellowstone and
other parks.
Zion Canyon is mighty abyss
which splits the Kolob Plateau
from top to bottom. Entered along
its floor through the old Mormon
villages of Rockville and Spring
dale, it presents panorama in
dazzling color unequaled in vivid
magnificence. On each side sheer
ovad
high, are surmounted by spires,
domes and multicolored temples,
which stand out in weird shapes
against the bluest sky in the void
Up the canyon are the Three
Fatriarchs, triplet peaks which
guard a. monstrous rock-walled
amphitheater. Against the zeni h
towers the colossal monolith of the
Great White Throne, and across
rises the crimson pyramid of An.
gels Landing, originally named, as
the old settlers say, because moth
ing but an angel with wings oould
land on top"
This year, however, a new trail
leads to the summit Of the Land
ing, from which an unusual view
of the gorge is had. The Temple
of Sinawava, farther up the can
yon, is a circular amphitheater
whose walls rise straight for over
5000 feet. From inside it neither
entrance nor exit can be seen, and
in it's center stand two pillars OF
odd shaped stone, which legend calls
Ithe idol rocks of this place Of pre-
historic worship.
Still farther into It's depths thu
icanyon narrows down to. a mere
slit in the earth, where four horse
men, with arms outstretched, can
span it's width. In the narroWs.
where the walls still rise for more
than half a mile upward, the stars
have been seen at noon. Above the
blood-red cliffs of the Narrows rises
the silver pyramid OF the Mountain
| of Mystery.
! Zion is a riot of contrasting color
First are the red cliffs in thousa nds
of feet of shades ranging from deep
/ blood red to a light salmon. Sur
mounting them are dazzling white
/ strata, and at an altitude of $500
/ feet above the canyon floor another
! LAYER of colored earth crust caps
! the white, this one a lighter pink
! Nearly twenty million years of the
earth's development has been laId
bare to the eye. 1t is a spectacle
which adds something entirely diff
L.