St. George & Zion National Park

With fall upon us, it is the perfect time of year to visit the St. George area since the weather is cooling down and some of St. George’s premier activities are heating up. The St. George Marathon, a qualifier for the Boston Marathon, is Saturday, October 3. The Huntsman World Senior Games, drawing athletes 55 and over from all over the globe, will be held October 5-17. Tuacahn presents “Aida” and “Annie” until mid-October. In addition to these events, there is always something else going on, including Santa Clara Swiss Days September 25-26 as well as concerts and seasonal events such as the corn maze at Staheli Farm. For more information about these activities and others, check out our calendar page . We can’t wait to see you in Utah’s Dixie this fall!

As part of the celebration of Zion National Park’s centennial this year, the Zion Canyon Field Institute is holding a film series called “A Century of Cinema” every Thursday night from now until October 15 at the Canyon Community Center, 126 Lion Blvd. in Springdale. Each of the films in the series has a special connection to Zion in that each one was filmed in or near the park. Selections for the series include movies such as “Jeremiah Johnson,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and “The Electric Horseman.” For more information, click here or here .

Everyone knows about Zion National Park, Snow Canyon State Park, and Red Cliffs Recreation Area – three hot spots where visitors flock to enjoy fantastic sandstone landscapes. There is more to southern Utah than these popular scenic attractions, however, as a recent travel column in The Daily Spectrum indicates. In addition to the usual touristy red rock spectacles, the St. George area is also home to the Pine Valley Mountains, where visitors and locals alike can escape the summer heat and enjoy alpine scenery. The most popular access point to the Pine Valley Mountains is near the town of Pine Valley itself. The area boasts a reservoir for fishing, a campground and picnic spots – as well as historical treasures such as the Pine Valley Chapel, the oldest LDS meetinghouse still in use. Additionally, another less popular access point is the Oak Grove Campground, approximately eight miles north of Silver Reef (take the Silver Reef I-15 exit, then drive north) until reaching the campground, which offers an excellent vista of the towns of LaVerkin and Hurricane and the mesas above them. For more information about recreation in the Pine Valley Mountains, click here .

The Salt Lake Tribune, in commemoration of Zion National Park’s centennial, recently published several stories by its readers recounting their memorable experiences in Utah’s oldest and most visited national park. All Zion visitors leave the park with fond memories of their time spend within its boundaries. What is one of your favorite memories from your visits to Zion?

Sid Kaplan of Calgary, Canada’s Troy Media recently wrote an article about the trails of Zion National Park, calling the park a “walker’s paradise.” Kaplan specifically highlighted what seem to be the park’s two most famous hikes – the Zion Narrows and Angels Landing. The two hikes could not be more different. When hiking through the Zion Narrows, the trail is the Virgin River. The narrow canyon’s walls tower thousands of feet above hikers, providing a breathtaking bottom-up view.

In contrast, Angels Landing is one of the best top-down views in the park. The first two miles of the trail to Scout Lookout is a little strenuous, but doable. Many of its hikers describe the last half-mile, the ascent up to the viewpoint, as “freaky” for good reason. Sheer drop-offs face hikers along this stretch. Chains bolted to the rock provide hikers with one more thing to hold onto as they venture up the “freaky” portion. If neither of these hikes sounds appealing, Zion is also full of shorter, less strenuous hikes, including Weeping Rock, the Riverside Walk, and Canyon Overlook. Come visit to find your favorite trail in this “walker’s paradise!”

According to Travel Web site TripAdvisors travelers and editors, southern Utah’s Zion National Park is the best national park in the United States. Zion finished ahead of parks commonly referred to as the “crown jewels” of the National Park System, including Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (2nd) and Yosemite National Park in California (9th). For the complete top 10 list of best national parks, click here .

Zion National Park celebrates is 100th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion, the park will host a variety of events all year long. The William Howard Taft administration created Mukuntuweep National Monument on July 31, 1909. The name changed to Zion National Monument in 1918. A year later, it received national park status.

Utah’s most visited national park and southern Utah’s top tourist attraction, Zion will hold centennial events that will educate visitors about the park as well as its future. Centennial programs kick off with an art show in the Human History Museum March 1 – April 20. Events include juried photo and art exhibitions, a fun run, a walk through the 1.1-mile Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel, a park employee reunion, and more. The keystone event will be a 100th Anniversary Ceremony at a historic building in the Grotto picnic area on July 31. For more information about Zion’s centennial activities, visit the park website or read this recent Salt Lake Tribune article .

The 19th annual St. George Area Parade of Homes will start this Friday, February 13, and run until Sunday, February 22. The Parade of Homes boasts the latest in architectural designs and décor and is an excellent place to get ideas if you are building a home of your own in the near future. The event will display the latest in innovative building techniques, exquisite accents, diverse landscaping, and groundbreaking entertainment systems. This year, some of the homes incorporate green building philosophies. Over 100 exhibitors will be on hand in the homes’ garages to show off their latest home-building related products. The St. George, Utah area is an incomparable natural environment in which to exhibit these amazing homes, with its black rock and red rock cliffs and its backdrop of the snow-capped Pine Valley Mountains.

Tickets for the Parade of Homes are $12.50 per person and are available at Lin’s Market Service Desks throughout southern Utah and the center court of the Red Cliffs Mall. The ticket entitles its holder admittance into all 26 homes over the course the event.

It will require each visitor two days to tour every home at a comfortable pace since homes are located in many different locations throughout the St. George area. Visitors can choose to visit any number of homes in any order. Signs set up along roads assist visitors in finding each home. All tickets grant their holders reentry into any one home of their choice.

For more information about the Parade of Homes, visit its website .

“Hatching the Past,” an exhibit examining the phases of dinosaur development through embryos, nests and eggs collected from around the world is on display from now until August 31 at the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm. The exhibit, on lease from the Stone Co. of Boulder, Colorado, is the first outside exhibit shown at the museum in its four years of operation. Part of the exhibit will show visitors how to differentiate between ordinary rocks and dinosaur eggs. Most of the display’s eggs are from northern China – eggs of oviraptors, a feathered dinosaur that, ironically, liked to eat other dinosaur’s eggs. For more information on the exhibit, read this recent Salt Lake Tribune Article or visit the Dinosaur Discovery site website .

The St. George Winter Bird Festival kicks off its sixth year Thursday evening with presentations at the St. George BLM office. The four-day event runs through Sunday with most of the activities taking place at the Tonaquint Park and Nature Center on Dixie Drive in St. George. The event, for anyone interested in birding whether novice or expert, includes presentations by experts on a variety of subjects, including binoculars and scopes, bird photography, and specific species of birds such as the Southwest Willow Flycatcher. The event also includes a banquet on Saturday night, field trips to excellent bird watching areas and children’s activities, including building birdhouses and feeders! For specific information about the festival, visit its website .