Zion Morning: Photograph by Will Tenney

Zion Morning

We spent a few days hiking in Zion National Park, truly one of the most spectacular places on Earth. We had hiked up steep trails from the valley floor to the top of the surrounding ridge. We had waded up a river in a slot canyon with sides hundreds of feet high yet only a few yards wide at the bottom. We had climbed up to the famous Angel’s Landing. And now we were leaving early in the morning on our way to Bryce Canyon for another few days of hiking. The morning air was crisp and clear, the sun still with a bit of its morning glow. Stopping at the carpark just at the entrance to the road tunnel leading into the park from the east, we walked the short distance past the Great Arch to the Canyon Overlook. This view up the flank of The East Temple exhibits all that is wondrous in Zion — the multilayered multicolored rocks weathered into strange shapes and dotted with very sparse vegetation.