Virgin River in Zion National Park, Utah, USA

© Jonathan Ross/Getty Image

The cliffs and canyons of Zion National Park. Zion National Park, Utah, USA

The Virgin River winds it way through three states in the western USA - Utah, Nevada and Arizona - but this particularly scenic section cuts a 1,000ft-deep gorge through the imposing Zion Canyon, a huge narrow ravine in Zion National Park.

The park, established 103 years ago today, is famous for its spectacular cliff-and-canyon landscape, covering 229 sq miles in southern Utah. Here, where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet, the Virgin River is home to plants and animals that aren't found anywhere else. Without the water of the Virgin River system, creatures like the woundfin minnow, one of rarest species on the planet, couldn't exist.