Zion National Park: A Visual Interpretation

Long before you ever reach Zion, the brooding rock giants within its boundaries loom large on the horizon, towering over the wrenched plateaus, pale grass valleys, and fitful human settlements of southwestern Utah.

Like a high-walled Moorish city floating in a desert mirage, Zion's snaggle-toothed crags, patinated domes, monolithic towers, and twisted pinnacles seem to rise above the crumbling ledges of the Birgin River Valley like ice cream-colored battlements, watchtowers, minarets, and thrones-an exotic geological display indeed.