[Illustration: _On the West Rim, Zion National Park_]
Just below the great bend in the Mukuntuweap River looms an isolated rock temple of prodigious bulk and imperial majesty, a truncated pyramid or mayhap a flattened dome, its lower half red, its upper half tinting from rosy buff to white, a forest of tall pines, acres in extent, upon its untrodden summit. This colossal butte, “one of the world’s great rocks,” is seen most effectively from the Temple of Sinawava, through the inverted maroon arch between the Great Organ and Angels Landing. It appears completely detached from the east wall, aloof and unscalable. While it has not been officially measured, its crest is probably more than 3,000 feet above the river.
[Illustration: _In the Narrows, Zion National Park_]
To the north is Cable Mountain, whence a rope of steel wire conveys lumber to the valley from the forested plateau. Between it and the next peak is Raining Cave and the site of a cliff dwelling.
Beyond the bend the precipices of jasper red confine a flower-dotted meadow shaded by trees, where sphinx-like figures, colossi, and shattered pylons of warm and sombre reds suggest the Egyptian ruins at Karnak and Thebes. Several obelisks rise isolated from the gardens of the shrine. This is the beautiful Temple of Sinawava, the last of the courts as one ascends the Canyon. It was here that President Harding paid his tribute to Zion in 1923.
Half a mile beyond, the dragon’s-blood precipices become more perpendicular and close in toward each other until the gorge seems blocked, but a turn opens new vistas. Now, it is no more than seventy-five feet from cliff to cliff and the stream stretches from wall to wall. But there is one last glorious picture for those who must turn back. A short distance farther up the gorge soars a slender, ethereal cone of pink and white, a peak of such appealing symmetry and delicate tints, so lofty and aspiring, that it evokes a cry of admiration. It is the Mountain of Mystery.
[Illustration: _One of the Amphitheatres of Cedar Breaks_]
The Canyon continues some eight miles farther, but its exploration is only for the adventurous few. There is no trail but the winding river which reaches from wall to wall; sudden rainstorms send between the scarred and splintered cliffs a resistless torrent of water. With a competent guide those in search of unusual thrills may ride horseback several miles into the deep sunless cleft where great pendants of rock overhang and shut out the sky; where the churning stream in flood has left intricate cameos and arabesques upon the sandstone; where little waterfalls leap from green ledges; where one may almost touch both sombre walls with outstretched hands; where the stars may be seen by day. Many a time the canyon seems to end with prison-like finality and the sky seems lost forever. It is a travel adventure that may not be had elsewhere and one never forgotten.