"We recently took our daughters on a trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and found out it was a lot harder to hike out now," she said. "The old mothers made it out in about seven hours while the daughters made it out in four hours."

Also speaking at the event was U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who said Laura Bush had raised the profile of the Junior Ranger program.

"She wants every child to be connected to our shared heritage," he said. "Zion National Park is living history, it's an expression of who we are as a nation."

The $500,000 renovation of the Zion Nature Center was largely paid for by entry fees gathered at the park, he noted.

The Nature Center was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and built in 1934 as a cafeteria for the rustic guest cabins nearby. While the cabins are gone, the building underwent a two-year rehabilitation effort to make it more accessible and return it to its original appearance.

Kempthorne also praised the National Park Centennial Initiative, a multiyear, nearly $3 billion infusion of public and private funding to be spent on the national park system in preparation for its 100th anniversary in 2016.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com