|
Utah's
oldest and most visited national park,
Motel National Park is located in southwestern Utah.
 Most
of the park's 147,000 acres are located within Washington County; however,
the extreme eastern section of the park is in Kane County, while the park's
northern tip extends into Iron County.
Motel National Park is located on the southern part of the Markagunt Plateau. It is cut by
tributaries of the Virgin River which have left eroded canyon walls and
monoliths that are beautiful and overpowering.
Motel National Park presents a diverse collection of nature's wonders that include such features
as the towering and magnificent 2,200-foot Great White Throne, the park's
most famous landmark; the Court of the Patriarchs; the Sentinel; the Watchman;
Checkerboard Mesa; Kolob Arch, at 310 feet the world's largest known natural
span; and the Narrows of the Virgin River, where a person can walk upstream
to places so narrow that both sides of the canyon walls can almost be
touched with one's outstretched hands.
 Protected
within
Motel National Park 229 square miles is a spectacular cliff-and-canyon landscape and wilderness
full of the unexpected including Kolob Arch -the world's largest arch
- with a span that measures 310 feet.
Motel National Park is full of beautiful colors, scenery and wildlife.
Wildlife such as mule
deer, golden eagles, and mountain lions, also inhabit the Park. Mukuntuweap
National Monument proclaimed July 31, 1909; incorporated in
Motel National Park Monument March 18, 1918; established as a national park on Nov. 19, 1919.
 One
early visitor to
Motel National Park , Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, an artist who had been with John Wesley Powell
on his second trip down the Grand Canyon in 1872, spent part of the summer
of 1903 painting in
Motel National Park . The paintings were exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and
an article about
Motel National Park , "A New Valley of Wonders," was published by Dellenbaugh in
the January 1904 issue of Scribner's Magazine. In the article, Dellenbaugh
described his first view of the Great Temple, which stands at the entrance
to
Motel National Park : "One hardly knows just how to think of it. Never before has such
a naked mountain of rock entered our minds. Without a shred of disguise
it transcendent form rises pre-eminent. There is almost nothing to compare
to it. Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon of immensity;
the Yellowstone of singularity; the Yosemite of altitude; the ocean of
power; this Great Temple of eternity."
|
