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2013 ZION NATIONAL PARK PLEIN AIR ARTIST INVITATIONAL
FIFTH ANNUAL EVENT PROMISES TO BE OUTSTANDING

Zion National Park Superintendent Jock Whitworth and Zion National Park Foundation Executive Director Lyman Hafen announced the twenty four artists selected for the fifth annual artist invitational held every year during the first full week of November in Zion National Park. The artists, residing across the United States, were selected from a large field of national and international applicants.

See the 2013 list of artists here.

Visitors coming to the park during this most beautiful time of year, November 3 - 11, have the added dimension of seeing nationally known artists painting throughout the park. Each artist will give a free demonstration scheduled from Monday through Friday.

See the schedule of events here.

Proceeds from this event benefit Zion’s award winning youth education programs. Painting to the right, "Great White Throne" by artist Brad Holt. Painting below, "Sunset Ranch" by artist Suze Woolf.

Plan now to attend for a life enriching experience.

Click here to read about the 2012 Zion Plein Air Event.

ZION NATIONAL PARK-LIKE NO PLACE ELSE ON EARTH

Check out our newest t-shirt and hat! Made in the U. S. A., these top quality products have a great design that make wearing Zion a true fashion statement. Great for gifts or for sporting your own reminder of wonderful experiences during visits to the park.

Click here for the t-shirt.
Click here for the hat.

ZCFI LOOKS FORWARD TO AN EXCITING 2013
PLAN NOW TO ATTEND ONE OF THESE SPECTACULAR CLASSES

Zion Canyon Field Institute offers much to look forward to in 2013. We have six new class offerings this year. Ginny Sparks, a full-blooded Navajo woman, will teach Navajo Medicinal Plant Usage on April 15, 29, and May 20. Ms. Sparks is also a Registered Nurse so she can explain the pharmacological properties of the medicinal plants while she shares the Navajo uses with her students.

Kathleen Kavarra Corr will teach Zion Canyon Riparian Ecosystem on April 27. As riparian systems are the "life-blood" of Zion's desert ecosystem this class will prove to be enlightening for those wishing to gain a fuller understanding of this beautiful place that is Zion Canyon.

ZCFI director Michael Plyler will lead Outside Looking In (Eagle Crags Trail) on April17, May 3, and September 25 giving participants the perspective of looking into the canyon from outside the park. This hike affords beautiful views while we cover a little bit of geology, botany, and human history along the way.

Basin to Plateau will be co-taught by Botanist Walt Fertig and Michael Plyler on May 13. At Spring Creek (just north of the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park) the transition from Colorado Plateau to Basin and Range is abrupt and obvious. Join botanist Walt Fertig and ZCFI director Michael Plyler as we hike through the Spring Creek drainage to explore the wildflower display and some convoluted geology. Stand near the shore of where the Pacific Ocean was some 750 million years ago. As the hike progresses up the drainage we find ourselves in a slot canyon of Navajo sandstone in full bloom with spring flowers.

We are very excited about our new three-day class Great Basin National Park Exploratory. Walt Fertig, Ben Everitt, and Michael Plyler will co-instruct this class from July 7-10 at Great Basin National Park.

An island of cool in a sea of heat. Great Basin National Park at first glance would seem to be mis-named. One might infer that the park is about the low basin, but in fact it's about the mountains of the Snake range. A prime example of the Basin and Range hydrographic province, Great Basin National Park is a little-visited alpine jewel. This class will combine geology and botany to give a broad overview of this special place.

We will camp together in the group campground at Grey Cliffs. Through a series of day hikes we will explore a Bristlecone Pine forest, glacial lakes, a rock glacier, and on the Baker Creek Trail, meadows with beautiful wildflower displays. Also as part of the class we will take a 60 minute tour of Lehman Cave. There is also a possibility of a night-sky program.

Finally, Geoff Gerstner will teach The Mammals of Zion on September 27 and October 19. Join us in our quest to find evidence of Zion’s mammals, from the common rock squirrel and mule deer to the spectacular bighorn sheep to the elusive mountain lion and ringtail. Learn how to detect the presence of mammals and how to improve your chances of sighting them. Along our journey, we’ll discover little-known aspects of mammal life, behavior and design and what it really means to be a mammal.

Our other significant development this year will be the expansion of the Fern and J. L. Crawford Lecture Series into a year-round program. This is possible as a result of our dynamic new partnership with the Park's Division of Resource Management. Here are the lectures we have scheduled thus far:

December 20-Molly Cannon "Pilling Figurines"
January 17-Glendora Homer "Paiute Ethnography"
February 28-David VanAlfen “Puebloans, Puebloids, and Paiutes: Prehistory of the Anasazi Frontier"
March 29 Paul Reeve "Left to Rot on the Hillside: Inter-cultural Death in the Western Frontier"
April 18- Steve Simms "Fremont Rockart"
May 16-Spencer Fluhman "Anti-Mormonism in the Development of Religion in the 19th Century"
June 20 - John Clark - "Early Travel and Tourism"

Want to enjoy a wonderful experience in Zion? Check here to see the great lineup of classes offered by the Zion Canyon Field Institute. Field Institute participants can expect their workshop to be led by an expert in the field of instruction as well as limited class sizes. Come an immerse yourself in the beauty of Zion National Park and the surrounding area. Call 435-772-3264 for a list of classes available for 2013 or visit our website at www.zionpark.org.

ALL LECTURES START AT 7:30 PM AT THE CANYON COMMUNITY CENTER IN SPRINGDALE (126 LION BLVD).

WINNER 2011 APPL Award
Our Best Trip Planning Publication: Zion Adventure Guide
by Greer Chesher

Zion Adventure Guide: Exploring Zion National Park, has been three years in the making and is the first complete guide to the park available. The 160-page book,with nearly 200 photographs and 25 maps.

   Written by awarding winning author and former Zion ranger Greer Chesher, the book is the ultimate “Everything you ever wanted to know about visiting Zion National Park,” publication. Springdale graphic artist Sandy Bell has designed the book with original maps, as well as charts, diagrams, illustrations, and some of the most outstanding photography of the park available.
   This information-packed guide is the ideal trip planner for the first-time visitor and a valuable resource for return visitors to the park. It includes detailed maps, trail guides, things to see and do, reservation information, hiking and backpacking tips, a guide to the Zion Shuttle System, and the answer to just about every imaginable question a visitor might have. The trail information includes “explorer logs” filled with interpretive information on geology, plants, animals, and human history - connecting landscape with story to enhance the visitor’s experience in one of America’s most beloved national parks. Order here.

A MAGICAL WEEK IN ZION

Fourth Annual Plein Air Art Event
A Resounding Success in Zion National Park

     The first full week of November turned out to be perhaps the most magical week in Zion National Park this year. Each golden autumn day from Sunday Nov. 4 through Friday Nov. 9, was filled with visitors encountering wonderful artists painting the scenes of Zion Canyon. It was the Fourth Annual "In the Footsteps of Thomas Moran" Plein Air Artist Invitational in Zion National Park, and this year 25 of the country's top artists participated. While the perfect weather disappeared on Saturday, the 90-minute "Quick-Draw" on the lawn of the Zion Lodge, and the subsequent wet-paint auction inside the Lodge, were still a great success, in spite of the cold air and snowflakes that brought the week to a close.

     Among the highlights of this year's event were the hour-long demonstrations given by each of the invited artists during the week. These fascinating free demonstrations on the patio outside the Zion Human History Museum featured the artists sharing their techniques and telling stories about their painting experiences.

     There, below the magnificent Temples and Towers of the Virgin, park visitors and art enthusiasts spent an educational and entertaining hour with each artist as he or she painted a scene visible from that location. For visitors, it was a unique chance to see the canyon through the eyes of an artist. For painters and art enthusiasts, it was a priceless opportunity to learn specific painting techniques. On Saturday, each of the paintings created during the demonstrations was sold in a silent auction.

     There were three free evening art lectures given during the week at the Zion Lodge, adding to the educational component of the event. School children from throughout the area took advantage of the week to learn more about the canyon through art, and the event highlighted the importance of art in the story of the creation of the National Park Service, as well as the establishment of Zion as a National Park.

     While the main mission of the event was to share the importance of art in the Zion Canyon story, another goal was to raise funds for vital projects in the park. In this regard the event was also a resounding success for the Zion National Park Foundation, a division of Zion Natural History Association and the park's official fundraising partner. Nearly 200 invited guests attended the preview gala at the Zion Nature Center on Friday evening. The historic Nature Center was converted into an art gallery where more than 200 fresh paintings, created in the canyon during the week, were hung. The paintings were priced by the artists, with a percentage of the sales going to the artist and a percentage to the Zion National Park Foundation in behalf of the park. Guests had a chance to view the artwork, visit with the artists and purchase the painting or paintings of their choice. Some of the buyers had pre-committed funds as purchase awards. They got first choice, even before the gala opened. After a night of exciting sales and the handing out of awards to the artists, the Nature Center opened to the general public on Saturday morning and the art sales continued through the weekend, with the gallery closing at noon on Monday.

     Nearly $78,000 in artwork was sold at the Nature Center over the weekend. In addition, more than $50,000 in sales was realized in behalf of the event at the new LaFave Gallery in Springdale. The works of three of the event's master artists -- Peter Nisbet, Kate Starling, and William Scott Jennings - were graciously exhibited by Kathy LaFave at her gallery with a commission coming to the Zion National Park Foundation.

     Perhaps Enrique Koza and his wife Berta Salazar-Koza summed it up best in a letter sent to the Foundation just days after the event. "Thank you for organizing/hosting the very best art event my wife and I have ever attended!" they wrote. "We stayed at Zion Lodge from November 4 through November 12, and not a day passed by when we were not treated to something special, somewhere in the park... We have been to several similar events...but this one in Zion, this year, was by far the very best... Please continue this event and this format, as we will be sure to visit again next year and in subsequent years."

     The event is made possible through the productive partnerships between Zion National Park, the Zion National Park Foundation, and the community of Springdale. This year's event co-chairs were artist Anne Weiler-Brown, Zion National Park's Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services Aly Baltrus, and Zion Natural History Association's Director of Marketing and Communications Tracy Jones.

     Plan now to attend this great event the first full week of November in 2013. It is a great time to enjoy Autumn splendor in beautiful Zion National Park.

     To see the names of the 2012 participating artists click here and to see the 2012 schedule of events click here.

Sponsors

This event was made possible in part through the generosity and support of these sponsors.

(Painting above; Snow on the Eagles Nest, oil painting by artist George Handrahan.)

The National Parks: America's Best Idea
by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns's exploration of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz.You can buy your DVD set of this spectacular series and benefit Zion National Park at the same time. Also available 'The National Parks:America's Best Idea' hard cover book. Member discounts apply.

Donations to Honor, Celebrate or Memorialize
Many people wish to make donations to Zion National Park for a variety of reasons besides their love of the park. Some want to honor the achievements of someone they know. Others find a donation makes a great gift for birthdays, holidays or weddings for those friends and family members that already have enough ‘stuff’. Oft times, a donation is made as a tangible memorial for a highly respected colleague or loved one who has passed away.
We hope you will consider the Zion National Park Foundation during these occasions. The retail operations of ZNHA fund the overhead of the Foundation, making it possible for more than 90 percent of Foundation-generated funds to go directly to important projects in Zion National Park.

You can request that a beautiful card be sent as an indication of your gift.
To make arrangements, call Tracy Jones at 435-772-3264 or Contact Tracy by email

See the Temples and Towers through Zion's Webcam
Enjoy the view anytime! Click here.

Guided Hiking in Zion
See Zion up close and personal with a ZCFI Naturalist-Guided Hike. Choose from 15 different hikes in 2011 including the Zion Narrows hike and the exciting Rim to Floor hike.

Check Out Zion National Park's New eHike!
As the first in a series, the park has introduced a breathtaking virtual hike of Angels Landing. You may view it here. After a large but quick download you will be treated to spectacular scenes from the hike. Be sure to click on all the little extras. They are well worth viewing. For Angels Landing hiking information see the publication available from ZNHA here.

Plan Your Visit-Zion Utah Travel Planning Kit
Our special Zion information Trip Planner provides everything you need to plan your Zion Canyon adventure, including hand-picked books, maps, and guides. Order now online


Become Involved in the Future of Zion National Park!
Join ZNHA Now
Located at the visitors center in Zion National Park, The Zion Natural History Association (ZNHA) partners with the National Park Service to enhance your experience in Zion National Park, Cedar Breaks, and Pipe Spring National Monuments before, during, and after your visit.

ZNHA's bookstores offer a wealth of interpretive resources, while our Field Institute and popular Junior Ranger Programs provide hands-on learning experiences. Your membership in ZNHA along with your purchases and donations provide thousands of dollars each year to sustain these programs. Join us in our newest fund-raising effort to promote children's programs in the park. Generous contributors to the Zion National Park Foundation have helped make a difference in Zion National Park.