Follow the tour from start to finish: the welcome at the first stop, then for each stop the story you hear on the way there and what you see when you arrive.
Hi, and welcome to Taylor Creek, in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. I'll be your guide on the walk up to Double Arch Alcove.
I'll tell you a short story when we reach each spot along the way, and stay quiet in between so you can enjoy the canyon. You can put your phone in your pocket. If you'd like to listen again, open the stop in the app.
This is the start of the Taylor Creek Trail. Over the next two and a half miles, the path follows the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek east into one of the Kolob finger canyons, past two cabins built in 1930, to a great stone alcove at the end.
The red walls you're walking toward are Navajo sandstone. Around 190 million years ago, this whole region was a sea of sand dunes, bigger than the Sahara. The dunes were buried, pressed and cemented into rock. Look for slanted lines in the cliffs as you go. Those are the faces of ancient dunes, frozen at the angle the wind left them.
Kolob Canyons sits at the edge of the Hurricane Fault, where this block of land was lifted up and the creeks have been cutting down into it ever since. Take your time. The trail crosses the creek many times, so watch your footing on the rocks.
As you settle into the walk, listen for the creek. It will be your companion for the whole hike, sometimes on your left, sometimes on your right.
This is the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek. In a dry landscape, a ribbon of water like this changes everything. It's why the trees down here are so different from the junipers and pinyon on the dry slopes above.
The broad-leafed trees along the banks are mostly cottonwoods and box elders, which need their roots near water. In autumn, the cottonwoods turn yellow and gold against the red rock.
The creek crossings are part of the fun on this trail, but they're also a reminder of what water can do here. These canyons can flood fast after a storm, even one miles away. If the sky turns dark or the water rises and muddies, head back down.
Up ahead is the first of two old cabins on this trail, both built in the same year, 1930, by men who spent their summers in this canyon.
This is the Larson Cabin. Gustav Larson built it in 1930, near where the North Fork of Taylor Creek joins the Middle Fork. It's a simple log cabin, and it's easy to imagine how remote this place must have felt before there was a road up here.
Not long after, this land became protected. In 1937, the Kolob Canyons were set aside as a separate national monument, and in 1956 they became part of Zion National Park. The cabin survived because of that, and it's kept today as a reminder of the people who were here before the park.
Please enjoy it from the trail. The cabin is closed to entry and it's fragile.
From here, the canyon begins to narrow and the walls grow taller. Keep looking up as you walk.
You're walking between two great sandstone headlands. To the north is Paria Point, and to the south is Tucupit Point. Together they frame the head of this finger canyon, with cliffs rising well over a thousand feet above the creek.
The Kolob finger canyons are named for their shape on a map: parallel canyons running east into the high plateau, like fingers on a hand. Each one was carved by a creek like this one, working down through the sandstone.
Notice how much cooler and shadier it feels in here. Those tall walls block the sun for much of the day, and that shade is part of why the canyon floor stays green.
There's one more cabin ahead, a little further up the canyon.
This is the Fife Cabin, also built in 1930. Its builder was Arthur Fife. Like the Larson Cabin, it was a summer place, a base in a canyon that was a long way from anywhere.
Two cabins, built the same year, a mile apart on the same creek. Accounts differ on exactly what each man did up here, but the cabins show you how people lived in this canyon before it was a park: with logs, stone, and whatever they could carry in.
Please stay on the trail here too. The cabin is closed and protected. The alcove is about half a mile ahead.
The last stretch. Watch the cliff on your right as the trail ends. The alcove appears where the canyon closes in.
Welcome to Double Arch Alcove, the end of the trail. Look up into the great curved hollow in the rock. Near the top you can see two arches, one stacked above the other.
They formed in different ways. The lower arch was worn out by water seeping through the sandstone. Water soaks down through the porous rock until it meets a layer it can't pass, then it seeps out of the cliff face and slowly loosens the sand grains. The upper arch formed along natural cracks in the rock.
The dark streaks running down the walls mark where water flows when it rains, and the green plants clinging to the wet rock are a hanging garden, living on that steady seep.
This is a good place to sit, have a snack, and listen. When you're ready, the way back is the same trail. Thanks for walking Taylor Creek with me.