Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Copyright 1925 by W. H. Murray GENERAL PASSENGER AGENT Union Pacific System OMAHA, NEB.
[Illustration: Union Pacific System Overland]
ZION NATIONAL PARK BRYCE CANYON CEDAR BREAKS KAIBAB FOREST NORTH RIM OF GRAND CANYON
[Illustration: _The Great White Throne from West Rim Trail, Zion National Park_]
[Illustration: _Panorama of Zion Canyon_]
The Land of Flaming Canyons and Jeweled Amphitheatres
_Touched by a light that hath no name,_ _A glory never sung,_ _Aloft on sky and mountain wall,_ _Are God’s great pictures hung._ --_Whittier_
Southward from the thirty-eighth parallel of latitude the surface of Western Utah descends in magnificent “Cyclopean steps” from the flattened summits of the Wasatch Mountains, 11,000 feet high, to 3,000 feet at the _Rio Virgen_, then ascends gently in Arizona to the colossal arch of the Kaibab Plateau, 9,000 feet in elevation and overlooking the Grand Canyon. These Titanic terraces and palisaded plateaus, more particularly the flaming canyons and jeweled amphitheatres cut from their color-saturated rock layers, form scenic spectacles without peer or rival on the globe. Nothing else is comparable to these wonderlands. To see them is both a thrilling adventure and an artistic delight.
Measured by civilization’s yardstick, the unknown land in which they lie is a frontier, still in the pioneer stage of existence. It is not so long since the forts along the way actually repelled Indian attacks; it is not so far to fastnesses where cougars come forth to prey on deer, or to desert valleys where wild mustangs range. On the edge of the plains are ruins of primitive dwellings of which the modern Indian knows nothing; in many a secluded canyon are the more inscrutable habitations of the cliff dwellers. The indomitable ranchers have built quaint, poplar-shaded villages with homes of adobe, and their farms are often fenced with stone.
[Illustration: _The Watchman, Zion National Park_]
It is a mysterious land of purple sage and empurpled distances, of incredible color, of sun-magic and the wizardry of wind and water. It is a place to drink in beauty, to form new conceptions of the divine.