Zion National Park will forever hold a special place in my heart. It was the first national park that I remember visiting (my parents would say Acadia was the first one I visited, but I have no memory of that).
I was spending the summer in San Diego as an intern, and we took our rising high school seniors on a leadership camping trip to Zion National Park.
We hiked part of the Narrows, where the river has cut a narrow slot a thousand feet into the rock, with the gap sometimes just a few dozen feet wide. The Narrows is so tight that no room remains for a trail: you hike in the Virgin River itself.
And we hiked Angel’s Landing, a hike that takes you 1,500 feet up a giant sculpted rock on a trail that is barely shoulder width wide, with points that the only thing separating you from the ground far below is a chain barrier. It’s considered one of the most adventurous, heart-churning trails in the whole national park system.
Let’s just say, I’m not sure I would plan the same trip today.
But the experience of being there with those students, the wonder and awe at God’s creation, and their sense of accomplishment getting to the top of Angel’s Landing after wanting to give up and turn-around more than once, are experiences I won’t soon forget.
It’s not surprising to me that Isaac Behunin, an early settler of the Virgin River valley, once said, we “can worship God among these great cathedrals as well as in any man-made church; this is Zion.”
In the Old Testament, Zion is also known as the City of David, or Jerusalem, the literal place were the Israelites believed God dwelled. It’s as if Behunin looked at the canyon around him and he didn’t just see a beautiful natural landscape, he saw the dwelling of God. He saw a place where God was worshipped, and in that he saw a glimpse of paradise.
Zion sits at the junction of the Colorado Plateau to the east, the great Basin to the northwest, and the Mojave Desert to southwest. There is more than a mile’s difference in altitude across the park, the resulting blend of ecosystems makes Zion the only home for nine hundred different species.
All around you will see some of God’s greatest work: the sculpted rock, bathed in the desert shades of red, rust, cream, and brown. The blues of streams and bright greens of the cottonwoods on the banks. The gleaming white of snow in the winter and the forest greens of pines and firs crowning the plateaus will leave you in awe over and over again.
It’s not surprising that Zion inspires such heavenly thoughts and visions.
When you think of paradise, what images or ideas come to mind?
Grace and peace,
Kimmy
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