Mukuntuweap

In 1909 with one stroke of a pen, President William Howard Taft created Mukuntuweap National Monument to preserve a six or so mile long canyon in southwest Utah. The name mukuntuweap is a word used by the Southern Paiute which means "straight canyon" and this name is pretty much right; sure the Virgin River (not a Southern Paiute name by the way) winds back and forth a bit, but the rock faces which have been carved by the water over centuries form more or less a straight line. The canyon varies as much as 4,000 feet between its lowest and highest points and encompasses four different ecological zones and a large number of mammal, bird, reptile and insect species. It also long long ago supported native American peoples.

Taft designated the National Monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allowed the President of the United States to name "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest" on federal lands as Monuments to prevent damage or development to historic and natural treasures in the American west. The Act worked perfectly for Mukuntuweap; it is preserved today substantially as it was 109 years ago. Or at least I imagine it is.

About 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, the canyon was settled and farmed by native Americans. Some of these settlers were relatives of the Anasazi, a legendary and mysterious people who lived in what is now the southwestern United States and who were precursors of the current day pueblo indians in New Mexico. By about the year 1300, the Anasazi were all gone from southwestern Utah, likely driven out by drought to parts further south. Their remains are all over the American southwest but most spectacularly seen at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado and Chaco Culture National Monument in northwest New Mexico.

Then in 1858, the canyon was re-discovered and settled by a Mormon missionary named Nephi Johnson, who founded the town of Virgin, which now gives the river at the bottom of the canyon its name. Five years later, fellow Mormon settler Isaac Behunin dubbed the canyon Zion, an ancient Hebrew word meaning "sanctuary" or "refuge."

In 1918, Mukuntuweap National Monument was renamed Zion National Monument to appeal to the target audience visiting the park. Once again, the white man won. A year later, the protection afforded the canyon would be extended north and west to incorporate the nearby Kolob Canyons and Zion National Park was born. Earlier this month, I followed those Mormon settlers of 150 plus years ago into Zion Canyon, although I may continue to call it Mukuntuweap now and then.

Looking southwest down the Virgin River near the Canyon Junction bus stop.

Every so often I fool myself into believing that I am have seen about all there is to see in terms of natural landscapes within the lower 48 United States. And so every so often, when my ego gets the best of me and my guard is down, mother nature reminds me that I have not. In visiting Zion, I expected an experience much like I had at the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 1984 and 2010; what I got from my one day in Utah was very much different from that I found in northern Arizona.

On the surface of things, both the Grand Canyon and Zion Canyon are gashes in the Earth bounded on either side by multicolored layered rock which was exposed by a river carving out each canyon over thousands of years. But where the Grand Canyon is enormously wide and tremendously deep, Zion Canyon is not. At its thinnest point, The Narrows at the north end, Mukuntuweap is a mere 20 feet wide for a significant length. 

The differences don't stop there. The Grand Canyon between the rim and the Colorado River is mostly barren. There is relatively little growing below the rim and walking in to it for as little as 30 minutes will have your shoes covered in a brown dust which is about impossible to remove. Zion is not any of that. The brown, red, orange, white and ochre rock walls of the canyon are complemented by verdant green shrubs and trees which are fed by the water which seems to ooze out of the canyon walls, off ledges and behind rocks in good sized showers to tiny trickles. One thing that struck me about Zion is water is coming from pretty much everywhere. And it shows. I also left with clean shoes, for what that's worth.

Zion is in many ways a Grand Canyon in reverse; it's small rather than big, fertile rather than dusty and you enter at the bottom and spend your day walking to the top then back down rather than getting to the rim and walking in then out. I wouldn't trade it for the Grand Canyon necessarily, but I'd definitely say go visit both places. And I think I'd go back to both too.

The wall of the Canyon in the early morning seen from the Emerald Pools Trail.

All told, I spent about eight hours in Zion, preciously and likely too few, over a span of two days and about 18 hours total. I spent the majority of that time in the second day I was in town and as I often do when I travel, I got up early to see it. I'm a firm believer in "the early bird gets the worm" and I apply this philosophy rigorously to my travel plans. I'm sure it annoys some people I have traveled with but my motivation at Zion was purely practical: first, the parking lots near and within the park fill up by 10 a.m.; second, I wanted to experience the park largely free of fellow tourists; and finally and most importantly, the average high temperature in Zion National Park in July is 100 degrees. I wanted no part of that last one.

So after a 5:20 a.m. alarm; filling a backpack full of water bottles after a morning shower; and a 15 minute wolfing down of breakfast at the Hampton Inn buffet in Springdale, Utah, we hopped in our rented Nissan Sentra and headed for the park. Driving access to the park is extremely limited and most of the beautiful parts of the Canyon in summer are only accessible by bus, so we pulled off in the visitor overflow parking right near the front entrance to the park (first ones there!) and walked to the Zion Canyon Visitor Center shuttle bus stop.

I typically have mixed feelings about shuttle buses at National Parks. While I love the environmentally responsible nature of this form of transportation and would generally encourage the taking of buses and subways at most every opportunity, I hate the infrequent and unpredictable schedules and waiting for empty buses because each one I want to take is packed with fellow tourists. Not so at Zion. I found the shuttle buses plentiful and plenty empty. I love these things. Maybe they get packed later in the day when everyone's trying to get out, but for a morning adventure in summer, I found them perfect.

Now I'm not much of a hiker. Don't get me wrong I love doing it, especially in a place as gorgeous as Mukuntuweap, and I can walk for hours but I don't make these opportunities as often as I should or could. So given my lack of recent hiking experience, we decided we would set some definitely achievable but reasonably strenuous targets. The Emerald Pools Trail seemed perfect: three miles in length, rated moderate in the Park newspaper and covering a pretty good elevation change. We thought that would get us a good workout and a look at some amazing scenery first thing in the day and we could play the rest by ear based on our shuttle rides later in the morning.

The lower Emerald Falls.

As it turned out, all our strategy for the park worked out perfectly. We were off the bus and on our way to the Emerald Pools before seven walking up first a concrete paved path and later a dirt and rock path to get to the upper Emerald Pool. The Emerald Pools are a series of three almost still pools the serve as a pathway for water to get to the top of the canyon to the Virgin River. They are called Emerald because each one has algae growing in it turning it a green color.

The lower Emerald Pool is about a half a mile into the walk and serves as the end of the concrete sidewalk. Our hike to this point, where we found the steady but by no means torrential summer falls, got us a good feel for the peace of the canyon and also had us stopping to look at some birds and a couple of adult mule deer, one with a fawn which regarded us suspiciously as we walked about 15 feet above it and the river and one stopped dead in the middle of the path, grazing on shrub leaves for breakfast. We waited a couple of minutes about five to ten feet away until it got off the path and back into the woods.

Beyond the lower falls, the path turned to dirt and got steeper and we were mostly walking up rock, dirt and wooden steps between fallen rocks and boulders to get to the middle and upper pools. The walk to the upper pools features quite an elevation change, maybe 350 feet total and it's amazing how much it can take out of you after a short distance. It's a good thing we packed plenty of water; we needed it as we climbed higher. Each water break and stop to catch our breath was an opportunity to look around and see the way the sun transformed the canyon walls from dark shaded rock to a different array of colors as it rose over the top of the canyon and filled the place with light.

A mule deer, so named because of their donkey-like ears, munching on breakfast.

One of the things that struck me about the canyon was its size. Things really are so much bigger out west than they are at home. When we were climbing to the upper Emerald Pool, it seemed like we were so close to the canyon wall that we kept telling each other there was no way there could be a pool of any size where we were going; it just looked like the corner of canyon we were walking into was right in front of us. But sure enough, we kept going and going and eventually did reach the canyon wall, where we found a perfectly still green pool with a small stream running down to the bottom of the falls. It was a great reward for about 45 minutes to an hour of walking.

After our walk back to Zion Lodge, our strenuous walk was over. I think we made the right choice with the Emerald Pools trail but if I had to do it over again, I think I would have been a little more adventurous and taken on the East Rim Trail to Observation Point and called it a day; that trail is a full six miles and would have required a lot more climbing but I would have like to have seen if I could have done it. It leads to a ledge about 850 feet up where the views of the canyon are apparently spectacular. Maybe if I go back…

The Narrows.

The remainder of our day was largely spent climbing on and off shuttle buses, with short stops or moderate walks to get a look at the fantastic scenery. We checked out the Weeping Rock about three quarters of the way into the canyon and then went on to one of the park's most famous trails, The Narrows, a section of canyon which is really high and not so wide (hence the name). The entrance to The Narrows is about a flat mile's walk from the last shuttle bus stop. From a mile in, you can get a sense of how spectacular the north end of the canyon is from the entrance but to go further, you need to start walking in the Virgin River itself. 

Round trip the full Narrows walk is estimated at a cool eight hours and when you are in there, you are totally unmonitored; there are warnings aplenty for hikers trying to make this trek, including obvious notifications about the last shuttle bus times. Lacking the time, the inclination and, most importantly, waterproof footgear, we turned around and headed home but with a couple of more stops along the way.

The Court of the Patriarchs.

If you visit Zion, I suggest you stop at each and every shuttle bus stop, even if its just until the next bus shows up. There's something different to see at every one; it's amazing how much the canyon changes from place to place and seeing it all is very definitely worth it. One of the most impressive stops is at the Court of the Patriarchs, a collection of three peaks side by side set as a back drop against the valley floor.

There's a small paved service drive that lets you get a good look at the peaks from different angles and you can walk down by the river to get a closer look at the rocks and maybe a surprisingly large turkey or two. I think the Court of the Patriarchs was maybe my favorite stop. The three rock formations offer an incredible variety of colors, shapes, foliage and jaggedness. The difference between the three is striking. Despite walking in a canyon of great variety all morning, it's easy to fool yourself into believing that it all looks pretty much the same. The three Patriarchs reminded me of the richness of the canyon walls.

Our second day in Mukuntuweap lasted about five and a half hours and we got to see what we hoped we would: gorgeous natural landscapes in an environment the likes of which I had never really seen before. I loved every minute of it. Days like that make me realize that I should spend more time out of cities than in them. I love living in an urban environment and visiting historic cities all over the world (well, ok maybe just the United States, western Europe and northern Africa so far), but there's something about being out in nature that is in many ways more enriching for the soul. I'll try to do more of this, I promise.

But before the second day, there was the first day.

We got to Zion by driving from Las Vegas on what has become pretty much an annual pilgrimage to NBA Summer League out in the desert. We knew we would get to the park pretty late but hoped we'd arrive before sunset to allow us some time for a quick drive into the canyon for a general look at things and maybe a late day quest to find some bighorn sheep in the eastern portion of the park where they are most often spotted.

This is important stuff for me. I first saw signs for bighorn sheep when I drove down to the Hoover Dam from Vegas in 2010 and was excited to maybe see one. I got nothing. I had a similarly empty experience in 2011 in the Black Hills of South Dakota, then Yellowstone Park, then crossing the Bitterroot Mountains along the Idaho / Washington border. If there are three mammals I am missing in my "personally seen" repertoire in the United States, it's the moose, the mountain goat and the bighorn sheep. I knew I wasn't seeing a moose or a mountain goat in Zion but I held out hope for a bighorn sheep. And we found one. And it's in the picture above. Don't believe me? Can't spot it? Read on.

We entered Zion on our first late evening at about 7:30ish and we knew the sunset was close and darkness would soon follow. Our plan was to drive through the tunnel in the mountains on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and look for wildlife while the day still let us do it.

It's amazing how quickly the dark descends when you are free of light pollution caused by man. The sun set in southwestern Utah the day we arrived at about 7:50 p.m. and by about a half hour to 45 minutes later, it was pitch black and we were avoiding mule deer determined to cross the road on our way back to our hotel.

The drive through the tunnel took us maybe 30 minutes with a couple of stops to admire the views. All along the way we kept our eyes on the tops of the mountains around us and tried not to get too excited and convince ourselves that every silhouette of every tree was actually a bighorn sheep stood still. We passed through the main slightly more than one mile long passage in the mountains and got to a second smaller tunnel where we decided to turn around. That's when one of the "trees" on top of the mountain started moving in a way different than a tree in the wind would move. We stopped the car and got out. And sure enough it was really not a tree and it really was moving.

What we saw is below the arrow in the picture above which is a zoomed in view of the picture above that. While it's all but impossible to tell what the picture shows because it honestly looks like a tree, I can tell you this thing was moving its neck back and forth for a bit looking decidedly un-treelike.

Then it really started moving and it was obvious this was a four legged mammal like a deer or sheep. We could see its neck, body and spindly legs outlined against the fading sunset as it walked right along the crest of the rock. Then it started walking down what appeared to be an almost sheer rock face which even at the distance we were at was so completely impressive. I've never seen anything like it. It was like I was just waiting to see it fall but of course it didn't because this is what these animals are engineered to do.

Now I can feel the skepticism from the four or five people who will read this post and who weren't there. After all, there are three kinds of hoofed mammals in the park and two of them (elk and mule deer) are not bighorn sheep. I absolutely know it wasn't an elk; it just wasn't big enough. But knowing nothing about mule deer really, I asked a ranger the next day if mule deer ever climb to the tops of the canyon. 

He looked at me like I was crazy and told me we likely saw a bighorn sheep. Since I mentioned we didn't see any big horns, he offered the opinion that it was likely a female. Good enough for me. We'd checked out pictures of female bighorn sheep and had pretty much convinced ourselves that's what it was. All we needed was confirmation. I know it's not the most impressive sighting, but I'm calling it confirmed.

My trip to Zion was literally a day trip from Vegas, a place I have now visited 17 times. Of all the things I've done in my many many trips to Sin City, this is definitely a top five and maybe top two or one. We didn't win any money there or see any shows but what we got was worth so much more. In many ways, I wish I'd stayed more than one night. I can't imagine getting more out of about 22 hours in a state. Totally worth it.