The Floor of the Valley Road, also known as the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, follows the canyon of the North Fork of the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

, also known as Zion Canyon, through

Zion National Park Zion National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography and a variety ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, USA. A precursor to the present nine-mile road was first built in 1916, but was later redesigned by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

Branch of Plans and Designs to highlight the natural features of the valley while presenting a natural-appearing built environment. The road begins at the south boundary of the park and ends at the

Temple of Sinawava Zion Canyon (also called Little Zion, Mukuntuweap, Mu-Loon'-Tu-Weap, and Straight Cañon; ''weap'' is Paiute for canyon) is a deep and narrow gorge in southwestern Utah, United States, carved by the North Fork of the Virgin River. Nearly the entir ...

The design uses local materials such as red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and

rustic Rustic may refer to: *Rural area *Pastoral Architecture * Rustication (architecture), a masonry technique mainly employed in Renaissance architecture * Rustic architecture, an informal architectural style in the United States and Canada with sever ...

construction techniques according to the prevailing 1930s Park Service policy of naturalistic design. The Cable Creek Bridge is separately nominated to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as a particularly prominent example of the style. The road surface is coated with red aggregate to continue the design theme. From the South Entrance to Canyon Junction at the mouth of Zion Canyon the road has been reconstructed and has lost many of the characteristic features of the 1930s construction. The original 1916 road, built by Park Service engineer W.O. Tufts, was a single-lane dirt road that extended as far as the Weeping Rock parking area. In 1925 a gravel-surfaced road, called the "Government Road" replaced the original road and extended all the way to the Temple of Sinawava. In 1931 and 1932 the present road was constructed on a new alignment as a

Depression-era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

project. Further construction was performed from 1933 to 1942 by

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

labor.

Traffic restrictions

Traffic congestion in the narrow canyon was recognized as a major problem in the 1990s and a public transportation system using propane-powered shuttle buses was instituted in the year 2000. From April through October, the scenic drive in Zion Canyon is closed to private vehicles and visitors ride the shuttle buses. NPS website, Green Transit - The Zion Shuttle

References

External links

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HAER) documentation, filed under Springdale, Washington County, UT: ** ** {{National Register of Historic Places Civilian Conservation Corps in Utah Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah Transportation in Washington County, Utah Historic American Engineering Record in Utah National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Utah National Register of Historic Places in Zion National Park

Traffic restrictions

See also

References

External links