Southern Utah Parks - Scenic Utah

Five National Historic Parks

Zion National Park: Just outside of St. George is Zion National Park, one of five parks. It has taken the Virgin River and its tributaries 13 million years to carve the cliffs that rise 3,000 feet above the valley floor.

Bryce Canyon: The next park to the east is also a National Park. Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all. Rather it's a series of amphitheatre cut into a cliff. Rock spires with fantastic shapes and in various hues of pink.

Capital Reef National Park: In the center of the line of Parks lies the newest one, Capital Reef National Park. It is a wilderness of domes and canyons used by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was the perfect place with its maze of canyons.

Arches National Park: To the east and near the town of Moab is Arches National Park. The name is for the more than 1500 of the arches. They range in size from 3 feet to more than 300 feet across. All in the red rock color.

Canyon lands National Park: 30 miles from Arches is Canyon lands National Park. It combines many of the same aspects of the other parks with its Arches, canyons, and needles. It is the largest of the five National Parks in southern Utah, more than 500 square miles.

The Canyon lands National Park is divided into three sections:

The Island in the sky: Visitors look down on the canyons carved by the Green River and Colorado River.

The Maze: It is exactly as it says, a confusion of canyons. It has been described as a 30 square mile puzzle of sandstone.

The Needles: A tortured landscape of spires, canyons, and arches.

Given the variety in the five parks boredom is not likely.
What ever your pleasure you should be able to find it in a trip across southern Utah and the red rock country.

• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journal:

Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776

• I Walked to Zion:
- Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail

• The Gathering of Zion:
- The Story of the Mormon Trail

• National Geographic's Guide to:
- Lewis and Clark Trail

• Hiking Historic Trails
- Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails

• Scenic Driving - Travel guides
- Scenic Driving in Utah

• Historical reading
- The Old Spanish Trail

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