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ZION
NATIONAL PARK
Sanctuary In The Desert
Nicky Leach
48 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
Translations available in German or French.
ISBN 1-58071-020-4 (English Edition)
$9.95 
ISBN 1-58071-027-1 (French Edition)
$11.95
ISBN 1-58071-028-X (German Edition)
$11.95
This
stunningly beautiful, oversized book is lavishly illustrated
with breathtaking color imagery by America’s leading
landscape photographers. In addition to the stunning
photography, the book also includes detailed maps of
the park and region and insightful, heartfelt narratives
detailing the park’s natural and human histories.
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is one of those clarion spring mornings in Zion that
comes close to earthly perfection. A red mackerel dawn
sky has limned Renaissance blue in the full light of
day. A whisper of a breeze ruffles the new-leafed cottonwoods
along the Virgin River and sets the tall ponderosa pines
creaking in their moorings in crevices high in the cliffs.
Two red-tailed hawks circle lazily on the thermals,
then drop out of sight into a huge, desert-varnished
window-blind arch in the pale sandstone wall. Mule deer—the
soft rustlers at the tent door in the predawn gloom—jump
daintily away on ballerina legs then dart to deeper
cover, safe from human eyes and the hungry gaze of the
mountain lion.
Above
the valley, the domes, spires, and temples of Zion seem
to raise great angular heads to the heavens, their time-worn,
craggy faces streaked and etched by falling water and
year-in,year-out exposure to the weather. “There
is an eloquence to their forms which stirs the imagination
with a singular power and kindles in the mind,”
wrote geologist Clarnce Dutton in 1880. “Nothing
can exceed the wondrous beauty of Zion...in the nobility
and beauty of the sculptures there is no comparison.”
Although
it gets all the press, Zion Canyon is just a fraction
of a park that might better be described as a giant
outdoor museum, preserving some of the world’s
most extraordinary geological, archeological, and natural
resources. The heart and soul of Zion, though, is the
Virgin River, whose North Fork rises to the northeast
near Cedar Breaks. The river eats its way through the
southern Markagunt Plateau, then conjoins with the East
Fork in Zion Canyon downstream from Parunuweap Canyon.
From here, it continues down to Hurricane and out of
Utah via the Virgin River Gorge, joining the Colorado
River in Lake Mead for the last leg to the Gulf of California.
The Southern Paiute call in Parus (“whirling water”),
but its European name was given in 1776 by the Spanish
Dominguez–Escalante Expedition, priests who understood
first-hand the miracle of water in the desert.
—From
“Sanctuary In The Desert” by Nicky Leach
ZION
NATIONAL PARK
Sanctuary In The Desert
Nicky Leach
48 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
Translations available in German or French.
ISBN 1-58071-020-4 (English Edition)
$9.95
ISBN 1-58071-027-1 (French Edition)
$11.95
ISBN 1-58071-028-X (German Edition)
$11.95
- OTHER TITLES THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
 Zion: Temples of Time by Nicky Leach
- National Parks of Utah: A Journey to The Colorado Plateau
by Nicky Leach
- Zion Postcard Book
- Peaks, Plateaus, and Canyons: Scenes from the Grand Circle by Jeff Nicholas and Jim & Lynn Wilson
-
Bryce Canyon: The Desert’s
Hoodoo Heart by Greer Chesher
 Grand Staircase Collection: Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon
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