Hurricane, Utah
Saturday, October 6, 2007
We're here at one of our membership parks near Zion National Park for a week. Yesterday we drove through Kolob Canyons National Park - it's a part of Zion National Park, but a separate, small area that we had time to drive through on a day when we had other things to do.
Click here: Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park The word Kolob means "star closest to heaven". Although Kolob Canyons and Zion National Parks are considered part of that "Grand Staircase" of the Colorado Plateau that we viewed at Bryce Canyon National Park - they are very different in appearance. Where Bryce Canyon was amphitheaters filled with almost delicate-appearing hoodoos, fins, and walls, this area tends more towards more massive red and white sandstone walls rising up around you, which are called "Finger Canyons". The color variations and striations are amazing - the Navajo sandstone goes from white to deep pink so suddenly as to appear painted! There are also hanging valleys - small mini-forests of green virtually suspended between two steep rock mountains.
