Copyright 1925 by
W. H. Murray
GENERAL PASSENGER AGENT
Union Pacific System
OMAHA, NEB.
ZION NATIONAL PARK
BRYCE CANYON
CEDAR BREAKS
KAIBAB FOREST
NORTH RIM OF GRAND CANYON
ISSUED BY THE
Union Pacific System
The Great White Throne from West Rim Trail, Zion National Park
Panorama of Zion Canyon
The Land of Flaming Canyons and Jeweled Amphitheatres
Touched by a light that hath no name,
A glory never sung,
Aloft on sky and mountain wall,
Are God’s great pictures hung.
—Whittier
Southward from the thirty-eighthparallel of latitude the surface ofWestern Utah descends in magnificent“Cyclopean steps” from the flattened summitsof the Wasatch Mountains, 11,000feet high, to 3,000 feet at the Rio Virgen,then ascends gently in Arizona to thecolossal arch of the Kaibab Plateau, 9,000feet in elevation and overlooking theGrand Canyon. These Titanic terraces andpalisaded plateaus, more particularly theflaming canyons and jeweled amphitheatrescut from their color-saturated rock layers,form scenic spectacles without peer or rivalon the globe. Nothing else is comparableto these wonderlands. To see them isboth a thrilling adventure and an artisticdelight.
Measured by civilization’s yardstick, theunknown land in which they lie is afrontier, still in the pioneer stage of existence.It is not so long since the forts alongthe way actually repelled Indian attacks;it is not so far to fastnesses where cougarscome forth to prey on deer, or to desertvalleys where wild mustangs range. Onthe edge of the plains are ruins of primitivedwellings of which the modern Indianknows nothing; in many a secluded canyonare the more inscrutable habitations of the6cliff dwellers. The indomitable ranchershave built quaint, poplar-shaded villageswith homes of adobe, and their farms areoften fenced with stone.
The Watchman, Zion National Park
It is a mysterious land of purple sage andempurpled distances, of incredible color,of sun-magic and the wizardry of wind andwater. It is a pl