Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 2, 2006



Zion National Park is located near Springdale, Utah in the southwestern United States. It has an area of 229 square miles (593 km&sup2;) and ranges in elevation from a low point of 3,666 ft (1,128 m) on Coalpits Wash to a high point at 8,726 ft (2,660 m) at Horse Ranch Mountain. Established in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, it became Zion National Park in 1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the park in 1956. Zion is an ancient Hebrew word meaning "place of refuge" or "sanctuary," often used by the LDS settlers in Utah. Protected within the park is a dramatic landscape of sculptured canyons and soaring cliffs, mostly from the 170 million year old tan to orange-red sandstone of the Navajo Formation. Zion is located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert provinces. This unique geography and the variety of life zones within the park make Zion significant as a place of unusual plant and animal diversity. (more...)

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