In the enchanting Zion National Park, you’ll find vermilion cliffs and verdant valleys in summer, and snow-dusted peaks and frost-painted trees in winter.
It was love at first sight when I met Utah’s Zion National Park. With its massive, rock behemoths and soothing-sounding, dripping-water canyons that sprout green ferns seemingly out of solid stone, it is one of the most exquisite and soul-stirring spots in the world. I’m certainly not alone in my estimation of the place; Zion is one of the most visited national parks in the United States.
The manifestation of the indomitable will of life to burst up through all odds surrounds you in Zion. Enveloped by gigantic, stone walls, mule deer walk through cottonwood trees along the Virgin River. Bighorn sheep clack across hard-packed mesas, while California condors and peregrine falcons float past rock-framed windows on the skies. Wild turkeys graze the beds of ancient and long-gone lakes; and the musically descending, liquid notes of hard-to-see canyon wrens reverberate in natural sound chambers and roll down around your shoulders.
Walking The Narrows invites contemplation about whether the first known people of the area felt as you do while looking at the massive, red walls in what is now Zion National Park.
The holidays are a time to think about those who you call family, good friends and the things in your life that you love. That’s why my thoughts are with Zion National Park—and all our national parks and monuments—today. I hope you, too, will take a few minutes during this busy season to consider the places that hold a special meaning for you.
To get you started, watch the short film below. Produced by More than Just Parks and titled Zion 8K, it’s a visually stunning journey through a thoroughly spellbinding park. To create this video, the filmmakers spent 24 days exploring Zion National Park during peak fall color. Some of the locations included are: Kolob Canyons, Lava Point, The Narrows, Taylor Creek, the Temple of Sinawava and Wildcat Canyon.
If a small bit of peace and reverence—items that seem in short supply today—are what you need right now, you’ll certainly find them here, in Zion.
A multiple award-winning author and writer specializing in nature-travel topics and environmental issues, Candice has traveled around the world, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, and from New Zealand to Scotland's far northern, remote regions. Her assignments have been equally diverse, from covering Alaska’s Yukon Quest dogsled race to writing a history of the Galapagos Islands to describing and photographing the national snow-sculpting competition in her former home state of Wisconsin.
In addition to being a five-time book author, Candice's work has also appeared in several national and international publications, such as "The Huffington Post" and "Outside Magazine Online."
Wow; what a majestic place. Maybe one day I will have the privilege to visit such an amazing place right here in the United States. Most people, including myself, want to go to other countries to see their beauty when we have so many places here I have yet to see. We are the lucky ones.
Together, Natural Habitat Adventures and World Wildlife Fund have teamed up to arrange nearly 100 nature travel experiences around the planet, while helping to protect the magnificent places we visit and their wild inhabitants.
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Wow; what a majestic place. Maybe one day I will have the privilege to visit such an amazing place right here in the United States. Most people, including myself, want to go to other countries to see their beauty when we have so many places here I have yet to see. We are the lucky ones.
Like all of our NPS locations, AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What beauty and majesty! There is truly nothing more romantic or more inspiring than our natural world!