Zion National Park 锡安国家公园

锡安国家公园（英文：Zion National Park），亦译为宰恩国家公园，是一个位于美国西南部犹他州史普林戴尔（Springdale, Utah）附近的国家公园。这个占地共229平方英里（593平方公里）的国家公园的首要景点是锡安峡谷，长15英里（24公里），并且有半英里（800米）深，其红色与黄褐色的纳瓦霍砂岩（Navajo Sandstone）被维琴河（Virgin River）北面支流所分割。其他著名特色有白色大宝座（Great White Throne）、棋盘山壁群、科罗布拱门（Kolob Arch）、三圣父与维琴河隘口（Virgin River Narrows）等。锡安与科罗布峡谷地带的地质包含了九个意味着由150,000,000年前的中生代沉积作用而成的岩层。在该段时间的不同时期，暖流、浅海、小河、池塘与湖泊、大量沙漠和干澡的近岸环境覆盖了此地区。与科罗拉多高原形成有关的隆起运动使得该地区由10,030,000年前开始逐渐隆起了10,000英尺（3,000米）。

人类由大约在8,000年前开始于此地区居住，那时只有小数美洲原住民家族；其中一支家族在公元300年成为了半游牧编筐时期的阿纳萨齐印第安人（Anasazi）。随着游牧生活的减少，这族人在500年移居至维琴河附近。另一族人，费瑞蒙人（Parowan Fremont）亦在此居住。两族人在1300年左右神秘地消失，并且被派卢士人（Parrusits）与少数其他南方派尤特人（Paiute）亚族所取代。摩门教徒在1858年发现了这峡谷，并在1860年代初期在此定居。1909年，米邝杜域国家保护区（Mukuntuweap National Monument）成立，以保护此峡谷，而在1919年这国家保护区被扩张并改名为锡安国家公园（锡安是古希伯来语，意为避难所或圣殿）。而科罗布（或译口拉卜、柯洛伯，Kolob）部分在1937年被宣布为一个独立的锡安国家保护区，并在1956年合并至锡安国家公园。

其位于科罗拉多高原、大盆地与莫哈维沙漠地区的交界，因此具有独特的地理环境与变化众多的生物带，容许更多不寻常的植物与动物种类生存。共有289种鸟类、75种哺乳类动物（包括了19种蝙蝠）、32种爬虫类与无数品种的植物栖息于公园内的四个区域：沙漠、河岸、林地与针叶树林。较为特出的巨型土壤动物包括了美洲狮、骡鹿与金雕，并且有重新引入的加州秃鹫与大角羊。而常见的植物品种有杜松（Juniper Pine）、槭（Boxelder）、灌木蒿与众多不同的柳树。

Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile (590 km2) park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. The lowest elevation is 3,666 ft (1,117 m) at Coalpits Wash and the highest elevation is 8,726 ft (2,660 m) at Horse Ranch Mountain. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park's unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park's four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches.

Human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of Native Americans; the semi-nomadic Basketmaker Anasazi (300 CE) stem from one of these groups. In turn, the Virgin Anasazi culture (500 CE) developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities. A different group, the Parowan Fremont, lived in the area as well. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits and several other Southern Paiute subtribes. Mormons came into the area in 1858 and settled there in the early 1860s. In 1909 the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918, however, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service changed the park's name to Zion, the name used by the Mormons. According to historian Hal Rothman: "The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time. Many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience." The United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19, 1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the park in 1956.

The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation. At various periods in that time warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3,000 m) starting 13 million years ago.

棋盘山 (Checkerboard Mesa)