Gateway to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Monument, Cedar Breaks, Kaibab Forest, North Rim Grand Canyon National Park
All automobile tours start at Cedar City, Utah, a prosperous and picturesque Mormon city of 3,000 inhabitants, on the edge of the Escalante Plain, at the foot of the Markagunt Plateau, at an elevation of 5,750 feet. Coming from Lund, one may glimpse in the distant east and nearly 5,000 feet above him, some of the rosy palisades of Cedar Breaks.
Cedar City has a good hotel, water system, electric lights, a bank, photoplay theatre, well stocked stores, hospital, Carnegie Library, Mormon Tabernacle, a branch of the State Agricultural College, and a new and handsome railway station. On the edge of the town is a band of Piute Indians, the original inhabitants of the country, who sell buckskin gloves, moccasins and other articles. The prosperity of Cedar City is derived from sheep, wool, cattle, agriculture and the recent development of vast deposits of iron in the Iron Mountains, twelve miles away. The community, founded by Mormon leaders in 1851, was named from the abundance of cedar trees in the vicinity.
El Escalante Hotel
This handsome new Union Pacific hotel at Cedar City would be an outstanding establishment in a metropolis. It is a three-story structure of cream brick with sweeping wings and a broad verandah; seventy-five guest rooms with tub and shower baths; a spacious dining room; a banquet room, ballroom, billiard room, barber shop, and a luxurious lobby. The dining-room service is of the highest metropolitan standard and many delicacies from the local markets are included in the menus. El Escalante Hotel, named after Padre Sylvestre de Escalante, the Spanish explorer-priest who was the first white man to visit the region (1776), is adjacent to the Union Pacific Station. Reservations and arrangements for any automobile tours may be made in the lobby.
In the Kaibab National Forest
Accommodations in Zion National Park
The Utah Parks Company maintains in Zion National Park, in a beautiful court beside the Mukuntuweap River at the foot of Red Arch Mountain and near the Great White Throne, one of the finest viewpoints in the Canyon, a handsome rustic Lodge Center and forty-six double guest lodges, accommodating 184 persons.
The Lodge Center is a two-story structure of native pine, with foundations and columns of rubble masonry. There is a broad verandah, a spacious lobby and lounging room, with a huge fireplace of rough stone, Navajo rugs, a radio set, retiring rooms and shower baths for men and women on the main floor. The attractive and commodious dining room, accommodating 100 guests, also with a fireplace, is on the second floor.
Each room in the cosy double lodges of native pine and fir is separate and private, although two may be used en suite by family parties. The rooms contain two single beds or one double bed, a stove, dressing table, chairs, rugs, and are lighted by two double windows. All of the furnishings are new and thoroughly comfortable and the service is thoughtful and courteous. The evening camp fire is a pleasing feature. Zion Lodge is a delightful place to linger.
Sunset at North Rim, Grand Canyon
What To Do in Zion—the Trails
The visitor who merely rides in an automobile to Zion Lodge and goes no farther will obtain an entirely inadequate impression of its beauty.
There are two trips that none should miss. One is to the Narrows. An automobile road extends to the Temple of Sinawava, whence it is a walk of about two miles; or, horses may be ridden all the way from the Lodge, a distance of about six miles. The other trip is up the spectacular West Rim Trail either to the West Rim, with a nine-mile loop on the crest (an all-day trip) or to Angels Landing (a half-day trip); the West Rim Trail is perhaps one of the most scenic in the entire National Park System. There is also a trail up Cable Mountain to the East Rim, where splendid panoramas are unfolded. The trail up Lady Mountain, two miles in length, has 1,400 steps chiseled from the rock, two ladders and 2,000 feet of hand cable. A short walk east from the Lodge leads to a pretty waterfall and a rock-bound pool. Other interesting little excursions may be made and the guides will gladly give suggestions.
Accommodations at Bryce Canyon
The Utah Parks Company maintains near the rim of Bryce Canyon an attractive rustic Lodge Center with a portico supported by massive logs. Bryce Lodge Center contains a hospitable lobby and lounge carpeted with Navajo rugs, and with a fireplace, a spacious dining room accommodating 100 guests, radio set, and retiring rooms and shower baths for men and women on the main floor.
In the pines adjacent to the Lodge Center are forty-six double guest lodges of native pine, accommodating 184 persons; each chamber is separate and private although they may be used en suite, if desired. Each room contains two single beds or one double bed, stove, dressing table, chairs, rugs and two double windows, all new, comfortable and kept in spotless condition. Bryce Lodge is a short distance from the rim of the Canyon at one of its most enchanting viewpoints. There is a camp fire gathering each night.
Bright Angel Point, North Rim, Grand Canyon
Accommodations at the North Rim of Grand Canyon and in the Kaibab Forest[2]
On the North Rim of Grand Canyon, adjacent to Bright Angel Point, is the “Wylie” Bright Angel Camp consisting of a central dining tent and social room and comfortable tent cottages accommodating forty persons. Wholesome food is served and all of the camp accessories are spotlessly clean. “Wylie” Bright Angel Camp is under the management of Mrs. Elizabeth Wylie McKee.
V. T. Park Tourist Ranch, in DeMotte Park about eighteen miles north of Bright Angel Point, consists of a central dining pavilion seating ninety persons, and a recreation hall, ten log cabins and a dormitory accommodating seventy-five persons. Wholesome food and clean quarters may be had at V. T. Park Ranch, which is under the management of W. S. Rust.