The cover’s reference to “plenty to shoot at” means with a camera. “Wherever you turn from wherever you are a new picture presents itself in the Utah-Arizona national parks,” says the inside of this 1936 brochure. I’d have to agree: while Yellowstone is more famous, its most incredible features are limited to a few spots in the park: Mammoth, Norris, Fire Hole-Old Faithful, and Canyon. By comparison, Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon are almost overwhelming with scenery anywhere you look.

Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

Inside are colorful photos of Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon. However, the brochure is aimed not at potential vacationers but at ticket agents looking for places to send their “patrons.” In promoting escorted tours, the back page encourages agents to get a “copy of the 1936 Zion Red Book” if they didn’t already have one.

In 1936, the “Red Book” had a cover like this one, which was used from 1936 to 1941, rather than this one, which was used from 1925 to 1935. I’ve previously noticed that UP’s escorted tour booklets of the 1920s and 1930s seemed to use a semi-consistent color code: the Pacific Northwest was green, Colorado was blue, Yellowstone was tan, California was brown or orange, and Utah-Arizona, of course, was red. However, this is the first time I’ve read a UP publication referring to one of them as a “Red Book.”