Established on November 19, 1919, Zion National Park preserves 146,597 acres of land in southwestern Utah. including Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to 2,640 ft (800 m) deep.
Most of the rocks in Zion National Park are sedimentary rocks formed by pieces of older rocks that weathered, eroded, and deposited in layers between 110 and 270 million years ago. These rock layers reveal that in this distant past, Zion and the Colorado Plateau were near sea level, and were actually closer to the equator. Only in recent geologic time have the rock layers been uplifted and eroded to form the scenery of Zion National Park. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches.
Zion was the last of Utah’s Mighty 5 that we visited during our travels through the state, and we ended up with less time and energy than we’d hoped to explore this vast park. But with the time we had, we made our way up the Canyon Overlook Trail to take in Zion’s grandeur. We then made our way to Canyon Junction Bridge to see the sunset bathe the iconic Watchman in a warm glow as the Virgin River gently flowed below – a fitting end to our Mighty 5 tour.
We’d never really thought of Theodore Roosevelt National Park until we decided to make touring national parks one of our major goals for this journey. To be fully honest, we didn’t know much about what North Dakota had to offer other than what we gleaned from a few North Dakota tourism airport advertisements featuring notable local Josh Duhamel beckoning visitors to his home state. And while there is a lot of what you might imagine – open roads over vast, nondescript plains – we were taken by the unexpected natural beauty and fascinating history of the state’s sole national park.
In 1883, a 24-year-old Theodore Roosevelt visited North Dakota and fell in love with the frontier life he found there. Investing in two ranches, he was eager to develop his hunting, ranching, and other cowboy skills as well as confront his physical issues with asthma. When he tragically lost both his wife and mother on Valentine’s Day the following year, he returned to the badlands of the Little Missouri River Valley, now found in the national park in his name, to grieve and to find solace. He frequented the rugged region throughout his life, even crediting his ascension to the Presidency and conservationist mission to his time spent there.
In 1899, Roosevelt gave his famed “The Strenuous Life” speech, in which he extolled the virtues of rejecting ease and seeking out hard work: “I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease but for the life of strenuous endeavor… [L]et us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.” The speech reflected the very core values that he lived out in North Dakota.
Theodore Roosevelt – Rough Rider, Conservationist, President [Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library (520.14-008)]
The focus on the importance of this place to President Roosevelt sets this park apart from every other national park that we’ve seen. While boasting the natural splendor visitors typically seek out from national parks, Theodore Roosevelt National Park felt like a much more personal experience. If you allow yourself the time to stop and take in your surroundings – the awe-inspiring badlands and vast herds of buffalo roaming nearby – you can feel first-hand why Roosevelt came here for both physical and emotional healing, as well as personal growth.
Teddy Roosevelt helped save bison from extinction, and many still roam his namesake parkMany prairie dogs also call this place homeI call it “Squirrel Rock”
While Theodore Roosevelt National Park might not be the most famous of national parks, it certainly ranks high on our list!
For more, check out our Instagram and join our email list for the latest blog posts.
