A symphony in stone

Zion National Park, Utah

The late afternoon sun painted the cliffs with rich rays of red as we rolled to a stop at the booth where rangers collect a $20 entrance fee and dispense information and advice. To our right, the western face of the Watchman -- an aptly named 6,545-foot-high sandstone monolith towering above the main gateway to the park -- gleamed crimson as it rose above an expanse of golden cottonwoods.

Fall colors come late to Zion National Park. If the weather cooperates, they can extend from late October into December, especially along the lower reaches of the Virgin River. These months are, in many respects, the best time to make the daylong drive from Los Angeles to this extraordinary park in southwestern Utah.

“I had been overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of this remote canyon, the music of its waters, the glory of its walls,” the late Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote of his visit to Zion. “What I had experienced was a symphony of the wilderness.”

In summer the symphony can be overwhelmed by a cacophony of man-made sounds. Despite temperatures that can exceed 100, more than 300,000 visitors a month pour into the park, causing lines at the lodge and filling up canyon trails and scenic spots. In fact, Zion is so crowded then that the Park Service has a bus system visitors must use to reduce traffic.

But from fall to spring, a peaceful, leisurely atmosphere prevails. The park gets only about one-fifth the number of summer visitors. Rooms usually are plentiful and campgrounds almost empty. Lines at restaurants range from short to none. The bus system shuts down. And the park’s trails are unhurried and uncrowded.

My partner, Gloria Cortes, and I visited the park for four days last November to photograph its surprisingly vibrant foliage, lured by a Zion Lodge package offering a 50% discount off summer room rates on each second night’s stay. (The package is being offered again this year, Nov. 1 to 24.)

Zion Lodge was designed in the 1920s by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who also created the Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park and lodges in Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon national parks.

In 1966, Zion Lodge burned, leaving only the old stone fireplace. A new lodge was built within 100 days, making it ready for visitors but losing Underwood’s Southwest- and Native American-influenced design. Today the lodge and surrounding cabins have been restored to the architect’s vision. The interiors have seen some changes too.

“We have made a few adjustments, nodding to modern-day standards of comfort, convenience and safety, such as the addition of double beds instead of the original Murphy beds, which were said to be uncomfortable,” said Gordon Taylor, the lodge’s general manager.

We found the rooms and cabins comfortable and cozy without feeling cramped. Our room, with chairs, table and a commodious dresser, gave us more than enough space to stretch out, hang clothes and relax.

The lodge has the only restaurant in the park, and the food, particularly the house specialty of fresh trout, is tasty. If you tire of the lodge, the town of Springdale, just outside the park’s main entrance, offers a range of dining and lodging choices.

The lodge, about a third of the way into scenic Zion Canyon along a road with views that demand you pull over to pause and stare, is a good base for hikes in the canyon.

As is the case with most national parks, an early stop at the visitor center was helpful. Ranger Bob Showler, a naturalist who came here in 1995 from Everglades National Park in Florida, graciously took time to chat. His enthusiasm for Zion was unrestrained.

“What I like is the extremes of elevation -- desert to aspen-fir forest and all the life zones in between,” he said. “It’s really cool to see a roadrunner at 4,500 feet and then golden eagles and peregrine falcons in the higher country.”

After more than eight years, he remains awed by the canyon’s vertical sandstone cliffs. “They make your mouth drop open,” he said. “It’s something you feel you won’t see anywhere else.”

The geologically young Zion Canyon is a textbook example of the power of erosion from wind and water.

About 240 million years ago, geologists say, this region was a sand-swept desert. Over eons, the sand dunes compacted into the sandstone that forms Zion’s colorful rock formations, monoliths and canyon walls.

As the Colorado Plateau -- of which Zion and neighboring Bryce Canyon are a part -- began to rise, the Virgin River carved the magnificent canyon in the heart of the park. The plateau is still rising, and each year the river sweeps a million tons of sand and rock from its bed and deposits it in the Colorado River at Lake Mead.

All of this activity has produced some jaw-dropping stone formations.

Besides Watchman at the park entrance, there is West Temple, which rises 7,810 feet, the highest peak in the southern part of the park.

The Great White Throne, another monolith about five miles from the park entrance, is light-colored at its top and becomes darker and redder toward its base.

In the more remote northwest corner of the park, Kolob Canyons provide an array of formations -- Double Arch Alcove and Kolob Arch, which is one of the longest free-standing arches in the world.

People also have left their influence on Zion. Small groups left traces of their civilization around 6000 BC, and sometime around AD 1300, the Southern Paiutes settled in and farmed the area. But the Mormons, who arrived in the mid-1800s, gave Zion its name. The area was designated a national park in 1919.

Picture perfect

Gloria and I set off on the trail to the Emerald Pools, a series of deep-green ponds fed by waterfalls tumbling off hanging cliffs that is popular with park visitors. We had walked barely 30 yards when we came across a herd of grazing mule deer. The four-point buck acknowledged us with a twitch of an ear, casually strolled past us to a soft spot beneath a tree and curled up for an afternoon rest.

Wildlife is plentiful in the park. Squirrels, hawks, bobcats, wild turkeys, porcupines and, at higher elevations, mountain lions inhabit the area along with the deer.

On a hike near the canyon rim the next morning, we watched two bighorn sheep square off and butt heads on a rocky hillside only 50 yards above us.

During our trip we planned to meet Steve Bern, a local photographer, to get tips on shooting photos in Zion. We agreed to meet at the Temple of Sinawava, whose craggy spires are popular for rock climbers. It’s also the jumping-off point for the Riverside Walk to Virgin Narrows. The mile-long path, which wanders along the Virgin River, presents an ever-changing view of the canyon walls.

In spring, a 1,000-foot waterfall fed by snowmelt pours into the Temple from a hanging canyon. Smaller cataracts tumble down canyon walls during and after thunderstorms, but they often disappear or thin to a trickle in summer and winter.

As Gloria, Steve and I followed the narrowing canyon, the light from the sun seemed to change minute by minute. Because the sun flirts only briefly with the canyon floor in fall, the best time to hike Zion Canyon is midmorning to midafternoon. Any earlier or later and the canyon rim blocks the sun.

The fall blend of golden yellow cottonwoods, red maples and evergreens was highlighted by the intense hues of the slanting sun. Every bend in the river and trail offered new light, a new perspective. Here a swirl of leaves surrounded a stunted cottonwood beside the trail. There a beam of sunlight created a halo around the crown of a maple.

We passed a year-round swamp, thick with reeds, cattails and birds and fed by water seeping from the surrounding sandstone. The water temperature is a constant 70 degrees.

Bern pointed out some of his favorite locations. “It’s amazing how colorful the rock is at sunrise and sunset,” he said. “And if it has rained a little bit, the colors are more intense. It seems as though the light is different every day. So you just never know how it is going to look.”

I’d say it’s hard to take a bad picture in Zion, and Bern agrees.

“Zion has brought out a lot of my creativity, which I didn’t even know that I had,” Bern said. “It’s very quiet here, and there are few distractions, so it’s easy to focus on creative activity.”

A wide-angle view

After several pauses for pictures and just to enjoy the scenery, we arrived at the Narrows, the walk’s end, where the canyon’s 1,000-foot-high walls squeeze to 20 feet wide.

Sunlight now was a slender finger, and we were reminded that a storm, even one that is many miles away, can send torrents of water with lethal suddenness. Slot canyons are entrancing -- and, in some cases, deadly.

On our last day, Gloria and I took a short drive up the winding road toward the park’s east entrance. We passed through a mile-long tunnel and, at its end, parked on the right in a lot and started a moderate climb up the Canyon Overlook Trail. It took us 163 feet to an overlook.

From this vantage point, many striking rock formations, only partly visible from the canyon floor, became geographic beacons, and a metal chart made it easy to identify the primary formations. It was one of the most rewarding short hikes we took in the park.

Farther up the road was a land of carved buttes and mesas colored with the white of quartz sand and the red of iron oxide. Ponderosa pines and red-bark manzanita punctuated the landscape. Most visitors spend their time inside Zion Canyon, but the park sprawls over 229 square miles, and much of it is spectacular.

With so much to see, we were loath to pack our bags and check out of the lodge. It was well past noon when our car slowly moved through the park exit and into the town of Springdale.

We prolonged our visit at the popular Cafe Oscar, where we enjoyed one of its aromatic garlic burgers and a chicken enchilada with black beans, rice and salad.

Then we reluctantly climbed back into the car and pointed it toward Interstate 15 to Los Angeles. As we dropped in elevation, the trees along the Virgin River continued to erupt in the colors of fall. Their golden leaves would probably glow for many more days, but they would last even longer in our memories and in our photo albums.

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Falling for Zion in the autumn

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, United, America West, Southwest and American offer nonstops to Las Vegas, the closest major airport to Zion National Park. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $58 on Southwest and America West, $98 on other airlines.

From Las Vegas, which is about 160 miles from Zion, drive north on Interstate 15. Take Exit 16 for Highway 9 toward Hurricane, Utah, and Zion National Park.

From Los Angeles, drive on Interstate 15 east past Las Vegas, then follow directions above from Las Vegas.

WHERE TO STAY:

Zion Lodge, Zion National Park; (888) 297-2757 or (435) 772-3213, www.zionlodge.com. The lodge, the only hotel inside the park, has 81 quiet, comfortable rooms, 40 cabins, a restaurant, a cafe and a gift shop. Doubles $120.40-$143.40. From Nov. 1-24, a package offers every second night at 50% off.

In Springdale, just outside the park’s southern boundary:

Best Western Zion Park Inn, 1215 Zion Park Blvd.; (800) 934-7275, www.zionparkinn.com. The 120-room inn boasts an excellent swimming pool and hot tub in an upscale atmosphere. Doubles $99.50-$105.

Bumbleberry Inn, 897 Zion Park Blvd.; (800) 828-1534 or (435) 772-3224, www.bumbleberry.com. Its 48 rooms can be on the small side. The connecting restaurant is justly famous for its excellent bumbleberry pie. Doubles $68-$78.

Driftwood Lodge, 1515 Zion Park Blvd.; (888) 801-8811 or (435) 772-3262, www.driftwoodlodge.net. The lodge has 47 rooms on nine acres and an attractive photo gallery. Doubles $82-$119.

One campground, Watchman, inside Zion’s south entrance, operates year-round. From November to April it operates on a first-come, first-served basis. The rest of the year, make reservations at (800) 365-2267 or at reservations.nps.gov. Fees are $14-$16 per night.

WHERE TO EAT:

Cafe Oscar, 948 Zion Park Blvd.; (435) 772-3232. Their garlic burgers are big and tasty. We especially liked the green chili burger. Burgers $6-$11; Mexican dinner entrees $9-$13.

Panda Garden, 805 Zion Park Blvd.; (435) 772-3535. Standard, well-prepared Chinese food. Entrees $9-$19.

Zion Pizza & Noodle Co., 868 Zion Park Blvd.; (435) 772-3815. A great place to take the kids -- or not. Large specialty pizzas and filling pasta, calzone and stromboli. Our group of five people really enjoyed this restaurant. Entrees $8.95-$13.95.

TO LEARN MORE:

Zion National Park Headquarters, SR 9, Springdale, UT 84767; (435) 772-3256, www.nps.gov/zion.

-- Dan Blackburn