How old is zion canyon

Pedestrian and vehicle bridges connect Springdale with the national park Visitor Center on the other side of the Virgin. In addition to exhibits and information, the visitor center is the southern terminus of the Zion National Park Shuttle, which is the only way to reach the heart of the canyon between spring and fall when visitation peaks. The first stop on the shuttle route is the Zion Human History Museum , which details the heritage of Native Americans and Mormon pioneers in the region.

Entering the canyon, the shuttle makes seven stops, including viewpoints of celebrated stone formations such as Court of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Weeping Rock, as well as historic Zion Lodge, a classic national park lodging designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and opened in The road and shuttle route ends with a dramatic flourish inside the Temple of Sinawava, a colossal natural amphitheater. A riverside path continues to the Narrows, where the thousand-foot-high canyon walls are sometimes just 20 to 30 feet apart.

Anyone is free to hike the Narrows as far as upstream Big Springs beyond that you need a backcountry permit. But be prepared to get wet: much of the trail is through waist-high water. Zion Canyon is laced with other popular trails, from easy hikes including Emerald Pools 2. Backpackers can trek the West Rim Trail Drivers can explore the high country via two motor routes that start outside the park.

Exit 40 on Interstate 15 drops down to Kolob Canyons Visitor Center and the start of a road that leads 5. High-country hikes are possible from both of the Kolob roads. George, Utah. Crawford Lecture Series : Year-round monthly talks about different aspects of the Zion region feature historians, naturalists, curators, and authors.

All rights reserved. Zion's rock layers , from youngest to oldest:. Cedar Mountain Formation. Carmel Formation. Temple Cap Formation. Navajo Sandstone. Kayenta Formation. Zion National Park is located along the edge of a region known as the Colorado Plateau. The rock layers have been uplifted, tilted, and eroded, forming a feature called the Grand Staircase, a series of colorful cliffs stretching between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon.

The bottom layer of rock at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at the Grand Canyon. The Utah Geologic Survey produced this free interactive geologic map of the state. Zoom in to identify rock types and ages, as well as volcanic eruptions. Sedimentation Zion was a relatively flat basin near sea level million years ago. As sands, gravels, and muds eroded from surrounding mountains, streams carried these materials into the basin and deposited them in layers.

The sheer weight of these accumulated layers caused the basin to sink, so that the top surface always remained near sea level. As the land rose and fell and as the climate changed, the depositional environment fluctuated from shallow seas to coastal plains to a desert of massive windblown sand.

This process of sedimentation continued until over 10, feet of material accumulated. Learn more about the ancient environments of Zion's sedimentary layers. Lithification Mineral-laden waters slowly filtered through the compacted sediments. Iron oxide, calcium carbonate, and silica acted as cementing agents, and with pressure from overlying layers over long periods of time, transformed the deposits into stone.

Ancient seabeds became limestone; mud and clay became mudstones and shale; and desert sand became sandstone. Assuming that erosion was fairly constant over the past 2 million years, then the upper half of Zion Canyon was carved between about 1 and 2 million years ago and only the upper half of the Great White Throne was exposed 1 million years ago and The Narrows were yet to form. Downcutting and canyon widening continue today as the process of erosion continues to try to reduce the topography to sea level.

Geologists estimate that the Virgin River can cut another thousand feet m before it loses the ability to transport sediment to the Colorado River to the south. However, additional uplift will probably increase this figure. My daughter is young and is fascinated with geology. Your email address will not be published. The Temple cap formation is the thin redish sandstone unit which caps many of the major spires in Zion National Park.

Utah and western Colorado were deformed as the rate of subduction off the west coast increased in the Middle Jurassic Sevier Orogeny. At the same time, an inland sea began to encroach on the continent from the north. Broad tidal flats and streams carrying iron oxide-rich mud formed on the margins of the shallow sea to the west, creating the Sinawava member of the Temple Cap Formation.

Flat-bedded sandstones, siltstones, and limestones filled depressions left in the underlying eroded strata. Streams eroded the poorly cemented Navajo Sandstone, and water caused the sand to slump.