USA - Magical Places in Mormon-town

 July 18-20

Hello everyone!

From Arizona, our Big Red Bus headed north to one of America’s slightly more unusual states: one with incredible parks and some cultural differences.

Zion National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Welcome to Utah. Home of the Mormons. My knowledge of this religion was limited to watching The Book of Mormon show in London’s West End, and going to a game night hosted by a Mormon couple…with a bottle of wine. Awkward, as wine is not allowed in their religion. Nor is caffeine.

One of the best shows I've ever seen

This is the Glen Canyon Dam - 220 metres tall, and
created nearby Lake Powell, a bit of a tourist hotspot

So let’s start simple. The preferred name for this breakaway faction of Christianity is the Latter Day Saints (LDS). Don’t get that confused with LSD. They spread their faith through missions around the world, but their HQ is the US state of Utah. Specifically, Salt Lake City, home to almost 2 million people, over half of whom are connected with the LDS.

The LDS follow the Bible but also other scripture,
such as the Book of Mormon

Salt Lake City is the state capital of Utah

Salt Lake City’s centre is based around Temple Square, home of some important LDS buildings. Though the imposing main temple was covered with scaffolding when we arrived, we were lucky enough to have timed our arrival in town with a rehearsal of the Tabernacle Choir. It took place in the auditorium of the enormous Convention Centre, which holds over 21,000 spectators.

Renovation is due to be completed in 2026

There were about 350 choir members

Mormon pioneers set up here in 1847, with the city being established as a refuge and a place to practise their religion freely.  It has since hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and will do so again in 2034. Apparently drinking laws were relaxed for the 2002 event, possibly so they could portray the place in a more inclusive light.

The main LDS Administration Building

The Angel Moroni is a prominent symbol for the LDS

Aside from drinks, the stick that the LDS are often beaten with is that original Mormonism promoted and practised polygamy. Indeed one of the founding fathers of the religion, Brigham Young, was said to have had 16 wives. This fact actually prevented Utah from receiving statehood for a while. Polygamy doesn’t officially happen anymore, but is humorously mocked in present day by certain companies.

The Seaull Monument. In 1848, a year after arriving, the
Mormons were losing crops to giant crickets until a flock of California
gulls came and ate them all. This is their thank you.

Such a good tag line!

The Mormons trekked from Illinois in the midwest to escape persecution and establish their present-day location. One place that the pioneers visited on their trek was known as Zion. The person decided that it wasn’t worthy of such a heavenly name, so for a while the place became known as ‘Not Zion’.

Very much Zion, actually

The area was the domain of the Paiute tribe -
this is where Utah gets its name from 

I’m inclined to disagree, as were many others when the area got declared as a national park called Zion in 1919. Its landscape is otherworldly. 

Zion features high plateaus, intricate
canyons and prominent rock towers

It was carved millions of years ago by the Virgin RIver

There are some interesting quirks found in Zion. One is the main method of entry from the eastern side of the park. You head through a tunnel, over 1 mile long, that carves through the rock. It was constructed in the 1920s and contains six windows that offer a quick glimpse of what’s to come - towering sides of a stunning canyon. I’m glad I wasn’t driving, I would have been very distracted!

Cars and buses are now so big that there
needs to be traffic control at each entrance

View from the window

Another is what’s called Checkerboard Mesa. The grid-like cracks on this sandstone hill are formed by erosion over millions of years. The horizontal lines come from wind erosions, whilst the vertical lines are the result of fissures caused by expansion and contraction of water when the temperatures change.

This is 900 feet - almost 300 metres - above the road 

There are a few examples of this in the park but this is the most famous one

Like many places I am visiting this summer, I would have loved to have had more time to explore, and a fully fit ankle to help me maximise the time I had. I did manage to get in a decent hike up to the Emerald Pools…which weren’t particularly emerald in colour.

The middle 'pool' - more like a puddle

The Upper Pool, a good workout for my ankle!

Zion is a stunning park. It’s understandable why it is so popular, with almost 5 million visitors in 2023. 

There are cottonwood, pine and juniper trees in the park

Massive in scale

Utah is home to many wonderful national parks, with another being named due to a Mormon connection. The pioneers came across an area 115 km away from Zion and enjoyed that area as well, so set up shop. One particular person was called Ebeneezer Bryce, so the area was named Bryce Canyon.

The colours. The hoodoos. Just stunning.

Bryce is much smaller than Zion, and less frequently visited

It is a name with a flaw, that flaw being that Bryce Canyon is not actually a canyon. Instead, it has twelve ‘amphitheatres’, with each forming a sort of epic geological step. It is higher than both Zion and the Grand Canyon, and once again a beautiful sight.

How that rock has stayed there is beyond me

This is Natural Bridge, which has a span of
26 metres...and isn't a bridge. It's an arch.

Bryce Canyon is the home of the hoodoo. Not some sort of hex you put on someone, but a series of irregular columns of rock. They exist in many countries but the largest concentration of hoodoos in the world are found in Bryce. They are formed by frost weathering and stream erosion from when there was water here a long, long time ago. Their colours are again due to minerals, and are again awesome.

Alternaive blog title: hoo-doo you think you are?

The technical term for the process is 'frost wedging'

More than that, Bryce hosts incredibly contrasting scenery in its twelve amphitheatres. We walked between two points, called Sunrise and Sunset. The rim, and the views below it, are staggering. So many hoodoos. So much time taken to create them. 

Hoodoo comes from a mistranslation of the Paiute word 'oodoo',
which describes fear among faces and forms in the rocks 

Worth a sit down to take it all in!

The star view is arguably at Rainbow Point, from where you can see all the way down the ‘canyon’ on a clear day.

Bryce became a national park in 1928

An example of an amphitheatre

When day turns to night here, there are some very different stars on show. Bryce Canyon is world-renowned as a ‘Dark Sky’ park, meaning that there is so little artificial light around that you can see an innumerable amount of celestial bodies high up in the sky. The picture below is from a friend who went to a proper place with a super telescope. The rest of us contented ourselves with walking about 200 metres from the hotel and looking up. It was still impressive. As I still haven’t learnt how to take starry photos with my camera, you’ll just have to trust me when I say that it was the strongest and biggest ‘Big Dipper’ I’ve ever seen. 

Starry night

This was after hearing some other ‘stars’: those associated with country music. Though it’s far more associated with places such as Nashville further southeast, we enjoyed their slick performances through some of country music’s biggest hits. Probably not songs that will be sung by the Tabernacle Choir anytime soon. Particularly ‘It’s a Helluva Place to Lose a Cow’, apparently what Ebeneezer Bryce said about the area of land soon named after him. 

This lady was doing a summer session here from Nashville

This man looks like the golfer Phil Mickelson

Owing to the past and much of its citizens’ religious preferences, Utah has a different vibe to many other American states. As well as that vibe, it has at least two absolutely wonderful national parks that have been a highlight of my American adventure this sumer.

Zion NP

Bryce NP

Love you all,

Matt