Wondering about natural wonders

The last week of October, I traveled to Salt Lake City to visit Carol’s daughter and her family. The weather was extremely nice — 75 degrees and sunny. The family works during the week, so we decided to visit as many national parks as we could in a few days. Utah has five national wonders that have been established as National Parks. Wisconsin has none.

Driving the first 60 miles out of Salt Lake City is no different than driving out of Minneapolis toward Wisconsin. All houses, shops and factories are in that part of Utah. There is no green grass because it is so dry.

After an hour of driving, we finally spotted a cow and a calf. Gradually, the landscape became more populated with cattle and a few irrigated fields. More trucks were hauling hay and straw on the freeway. Large storage buildings as big as Midwest freestyle barns were full of big hay bales and straw. These ranchers have figured out how to make a living in an area with limited rainfall, poor soil and weather that is very unpredictable. It’s easy to see why it may take over 20 acres to support one cow in some areas.

Eventually, we entered the towns of Rockville and Springdale. The entrance to Zion National Park was next. Traffic is usually very congested on the park roads, so the park service started a shuttle system, which allows a visitor to get off or on easily at any of nine stops. We were lucky to get drivers who spoke of the canyon’s history. Early Mormon settlers tried to make a living farming but failed and moved on to greener areas. Eventually, the beauty and uniqueness of the canyon became well known. It is about 20 miles long and less than a mile wide in many areas, with a small river and towering mountains on both sides.

The majestic mountains of this area are the result of a collision between the North American plate and the Pacific plate of Earth’s surface. When these plates collide, one goes under the other and causes a massive upheaval, which is what created these mountains many millions of years ago. One geologist said that every foot of elevation in the park represents one million years of history.

The Virgin River starts in the Colorado Plateau and meanders through the Zion Canyon, eventually flowing into the Colorado River. In almost all places, you can wade across the river year-round. The Virgin River is very susceptible to changes in precipitation, whether from a sudden summer storm or snow runoff in the spring. It’s much like the creeks we have in the Midwest. It is estimated that the river carries over one million tons of rocks through the canyon every year.

All of the mountains are sandstone and were originally part of a large lakebed before the collision of the earth plates. One sandstone formation is called the Checkerboard Mesa; it actually has cracks both horizontally and vertically up the entire face of the mountain. Changes in temperature and moisture can cause the cracks to widen as time goes on. Because the sandstone is permeable to water, melting snow and rain will pass through the rock until it reaches a layer that is impermeable. Then, the water will flow to the side of the mountain and form a spring. This results in added water for the Virgin River.

So, what impresses a comparatively lowland farmer from the Midwest? The elevation on the floor of Zion Canyon is about 5,000 feet above sea level. On our farm in Wisconsin, the elevation is 900 feet. The valley is not very long, but it sure has a lot of mountains on both sides — some towering about 2,000 feet above the floor. Some are capped with white limestone, but the majority are red in color due to the iron oxide in the rocks.

As we drove on Highway Nine through the east end of the park, the structure of the rock changed. On the west end, the rock was usually in layers, parallel to the previous layer. As we drove up through switchbacks to a tunnel built in 1930, the rocks started to look like poured concrete. They had swirls and curves, and there were no loose rocks. The designs and colors were just amazing. In fact, it probably was molten rock millions of years ago.

Surprisingly, there is a lot of green vegetation growing in the valley. How some trees exist in a solid rock environment is a mystery, especially with the rainfall varying from three to 25 inches a year. According to the geologist, those plants have the ability to almost shut down completely in dry years in order to survive.

I’m in awe of how so many mountains were created in a small area. Fascinating! The processes that Mother Nature continues to use, to build and to destroy, these national wonders are hard to grasp. For example, what kind of energy is involved to move a large part of North America several inches in 1,000 years and eventually cause an earthquake? I’m happy living in Wisconsin, but I’m also happy visiting these natural wonders.