The West Rim Trail is the longest section of the Trans-Zion Trekking Route, which runs 47 miles from Kolob Canyons to the Park's southeast entrance at the East Rim Trailhead. The West Rim Trail passes through high mesas, pinyon-juniper woodlands and deciduous - riparian systems on the 3100' descent from Lava Point to the Zion Canyon floor.

The bottom layer of rock at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at the Grand Canyon

Navajo Sandstone is comprised of thick layers of cross-bedded sandstone formed by windblown sand

Angels Landing (5,785') rises 1500' from the Zion Canyon floor and Virgin River, which wraps around its base.

Pressure from overlying sedimentary layers combined with iron oxide, calcium carbonate and silica to transform deposits into stone

The West Rim Trail climbs nearly two miles of rough-pour switchbacks up the west canyon wall between the Virgin River bottom and Refrigerator Canyon

The Virgin River drops roughly nearly 7,800' in the 160 miles it travels from its origin at Navajo Lake to Lake Mead

Sediments from which the Zion landscape is carved at one point piled up over 10,000'

Short sections between Cabin Spring and the Angels Landing spur run across narrow, exposed ledges that can be unsafe to pass when wet

Zion National Park ranges from 8,726' on Horse Ranch Mountain to 3,666' in Coal Pits Wash

Bluestem Penstemon is in the Figwort Family, a large and complex group with many parasitic and semi-parasitic members

Rock layers in Zion were deposited 110 –270 M years ago, and only in recent (geologic) time have they been uplifted and erode

In March 2009 the Omnibus Public Land Management Act designated 124,406 acres of Zion National Park as Wilderness

The Pale Evening Primrose genus name Oenothera means 'wine-scented', referring to the use of its roots in wine making

Steep canyon walls create areas of near perennial shade with nicknames such as 'Little Siberia'

Mariposa Lily's genus name 'Calochortus' is from the Greek word 'kalos', which means beautiful

Water falling from Zion's high plateaus has greater velocity than low lying areas and cuts deep, narrow canyons

Paintbrush is a semi-parasitic plant that survives drought by attaching to roots of other plants and siphoning off water

High sections of the West Rim Trail run across ponderosa-topped mesas, which are periodically culled by natural, low-intensity fires

Globe Mallow has been found to be an effect defense against certain invasive plant species