VACATION DETAILS

St. George, the county's largest city, lies along interstate 15 with a host of smaller communities that make up Utah's Dixie. The scenic area not only provides easy access to major markets of the western United States, it has become a destination point for countless people looking for a better way of life and more fruitful atmosphere for growth and prosperity. The tiny farming community of St. George had grown up and surrounding cities followed suit. By the end of the decade, the St. George-Zion National Park areas of Washington County were rated among the best communities in the country to retire by Rand McNalley, Prentice Hall, Money and the American Association of Retired People.

Zion is an ancient Hebrew word meaning a place of refuge or sanctuary. Protected within the park's 229 square miles is a dramatic landscape of sculptured canyons and soaring cliffs. Zion is located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert provinces. This unique geography and the variety of life zones within the park make Zion significant as a place of unusual plant and animal diversity.

At Bryce Canyon National Park, erosion has shaped colorful Claron limestones, sandstones, and mudstones into thousands of spires, fins, pinnacles, and mazes. Collectively called "hoodoos," these colorful and whimsical formations stand in horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters along the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in Southern Utah.