标签锡安下的文章

犹他州锡安国家公园的维尔京河，美国 Virgin River in Zion National Park, Utah (© Jonathan Ross/Getty)

历经百年的锡安国家公园 103 years of Zion

锡安国家公园的维珍河

我们的照片将我们带到16英里长的维珍河，在那里它穿过犹他州锡安峡谷上游，形成了一个壮观的千英尺深的峡谷。流经锡安国家公园（今天已满103岁！），由于科罗拉多高原、大盆地和莫哈韦沙漠交汇处的独特生物群落，维珍河是其他地方所没有的独特植物和动物的家园。如果没有维珍河水系的水，像世界上最稀有的物种之一的wondfin小鱼这样的生物就不可能存在。

Virgin River in Zion National Park

Our photo brings us to a 16-mile stretch of the Virgin River where it cuts a spectacular thousand-foot-deep gorge through the upper reaches of Utah's Zion Canyon. Flowing through Zion National Park (which turns 103 today!), the Virgin River is home to unique plants and animals that aren't found anywhere else, due to the unique intersection of biomes found where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert all meet. Without the water of the Virgin River system, creatures like the woundfin minnow, one of rarest species on the planet, couldn't exist.

锡安国家公园中的Walter's Wiggles小径，犹他州 Walter's Wiggles trail in Zion National Park, Utah (© Dennis Frates/Alamy)

The long and wiggling path

In 1926, Walter Ruesch, the first superintendent of Zion National Park oversaw the construction of one of the park's most ambitious trails. It took 258 helicopter flights to haul in the concrete needed to construct the steep 21-switchback trail out of Refrigerator Canyon up to Angels Landing, but the view from the top makes it all worthwhile. Walter's Wiggles, one of the most difficult and dangerous trails in the park, was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1987.

But you don't need to haul tons of concrete or carve into the sheer sides of a remote canyon help carry on the tradition of trail-building. Today is National Trails Day, a day 'to come together in partnership to advocate for, maintain, and clean up public lands and trails.'

Usually this means heading out to a local wilderness area and joining others to clear or maintain some trails, but this year (as you may have noticed) is a little different. The American Hiking Society has organized a digital campaign to inspire individuals to unite for the protection of trails and access to public lands—without endangering one another.

Zion National Park Turns 100

It's been exactly 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed an act to convert Mukuntuweap National Monument into Zion National Park. Fewer than 2,000 people visited back in 1919 due to poor road conditions and lack of trails. These days, the park has the opposite problem—with more than 4 million people coming each year, crowds create long lines for shuttles and clog popular areas such as the Narrows. Part of Zion Canyon, the Narrows can be seen from a paved path. But many people like to experience it up close, hiking in the Virgin River, and it can get crowded at peak times since it's—as the name implies—narrow.

In recent years, Zion has even moved ahead of Yellowstone and Yosemite to become the fourth-most-visited US national park (Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountain parks are the top three respectively). Also contributing to Zion's popularity is its proximity to other attractions. It's part of the Grand Circle, a region that includes parts of five states and is the most concentrated area of national parks and monuments in the country.

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