Flash forward to my desk a couple weeks later and the agenda is finding out if American religions should be so firm in doing all the things they do to attempt to change, regulate and shun the gay folks life.

The world of homosexuality politics is incredibly entertaining. And for those of you who think this is an odd subject, or that it is completely irrelevant, don't forget that the issue dominated America's most recent election. Voters in the United States voted more on the issue of family values than any other issue. And the only family values issue in 2004 was whether gay folks should be allowed to get married. The case against is entirely a religious case.

But I love religious texts. I have read many of them, and I am always wary about how groups imagine the meaning in ancient texts to explore some weird component of their religious views.

Before I open my religious texts, however, I read up on the history of Zion Canyon itself.

Zion Canyon's modern inhabitants were nineteenth century Mormons who had been instructed by the prophet Brigham Young to inhabit the area. These settlers farmed the land in the beautiful valley for twenty years and are reported to have fallen in love with this magnificent canyon. When Brigham Young came to check up on their progress, he was aghast.

The Mormons of Zion Canyon were drinking, smoking, playing cards.

The settlers had called their canyon 'Zion', after the description in the Old Testament Book of Psalms:

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion in the far north,
The city of the great King. (Psalms 48)

But to Brigham Young, this surely was no Zion, for the people of Zion Canyon were sinful. So he declared the name of the place 'Not Zion' and the name stuck.

But upon designating the area a National Monument, the US Government chose the safe name - Munkuntuweap Canyon, a politically safe ode to the early Indian inhabitants.

Years later, when the monument became a national park, the park name changed to Zion, and there was no outcry from the Mormons of Utah.

Great Basin Escalante Desert Going solo in the lonely canyons of Escalante The Loneliest Road A journey across the Nevada's Great Basin and the Loneliest Road in America. We follow the struggle between off-roaders, Great Basin Indians and conservationists over the fate of a blue butterfly. Summer Lake Part II of a conversation about travel writing, this episode continues into the southern Oregon Desert. Rachel, Nevada and Area 51 Area 51 is a dusty set of hangars at the bottom of a dry lake bed. The Owyhee River Part I of the Oregon Testament.Follow us to Leslie Gulch, where we stumble upon a yet undiscovered Native American site. The Alvord Desert Part II of the Oregon Testament. Fishing under the Steens Mountains, and wandering the alkali flats of Alvord Lake. Mono Lake They are twisted, trollish, ungodly, like a woman turned to stone East Oregon High Desert Wandering the High Desert of Eastern Oregon The White Mountains By the accidents of geologic history, this land has remained relatively unchanged. Zion Canyon Zion Canyon as a launching point for discussion on the politics of sin. Glen Canyon What Creatures will Roam Glen Canyon? It's the question I had to ask, even as I rolled into America's most lurid town.

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