If you enter
Zion Park from the East, this is one of the first prominent features you
encounter. It is pretty strange with all that cross banding forming the
famous checkerboard pattern. Checkerboard Mesa is located on the Eastern
Plateau of Zion. The Mt. Carmel Highway goes through this plateau to the
Mt. Carmel Tunnel. The road then drops down through the tunnel and a series
of steep switchbacks to the floor of Zion Canyon. The Mt. Carmel Highway
is very spectacular every inch of the way!
