Zion National Park
Zion is the reason a great many people first come to this corner of Utah, and St. George is the town they end up basing themselves in. Springdale, at the south entrance, is a forty-odd-mile run up the highway. The Kolob Canyons entrance — a quieter section of the same park with its own road and its own trailheads — is closer still, straight up I-15 with no canyon traffic to sit in. That geography is why this section exists: for most visitors, Zion is a day trip, and the day is easier to plan from here.
What follows is orientation rather than a trail-by-trail account. The park is genuinely three separate places joined by a boundary line, and knowing which one you are going to is the decision that shapes everything else.
Three ways into the same park
Zion Canyon, entered through Springdale, is the park of the postcards: a narrow gorge with the Virgin River running through it and sandstone walls rising half a mile on either side. Nearly every famous trail is here, and so is nearly every visitor. For most of the year you cannot drive the Scenic Drive that runs up the canyon — a free shuttle does it instead, stopping at the trailheads.
Kolob Canyons is the northern section, reached from its own exit off I-15 roughly forty minutes from St. George. It has a short, steep scenic road, a handful of trails including the route to one of the world's larger free-standing arches, and a small fraction of the traffic. When the main canyon is full — and in spring and autumn it fills early — this is the part of the park that still works.
Kolob Terrace is the high country between the two, reached by a road climbing north from the town of Virgin. It leads to backcountry trailheads, a primitive campground and the approach to the Subway. It is a mountain road rather than a park drive, and its upper reaches are not a winter route.
A fourth piece is worth naming because people arrive without expecting it: the east side, beyond the tunnel, is slickrock and hoodoo country that looks nothing like the canyon floor and is driven rather than shuttled.
- Zion National Park — Utah's first national park, famous for the towering red-and-white sandstone cliffs of Zion Canyon carved by the Virgin River. Open year-round near Springdale.
- Kolob Canyons — The quieter northwest corner of Zion National Park, reached from its own entrance at I-15 exit 40, with a five-mile scenic drive beneath 2,000-foot crimson cliffs.
- Zion Human History Museum — The National Park Service museum just inside Zion's south entrance, covering the Ancestral Puebloan, Southern Paiute and pioneer history of the canyon.
Hiking in Zion
Zion's trails are unusually stratified. A short paved riverside walk and a technical canyoneering route both count as "hiking in Zion", and the gap between them is wide enough that choosing badly is the most common way a trip goes wrong. Two of the best-known routes are lottery-permitted and two of the most rewarding are not, and which is which is not visible from the names.
Most of the canyon, though, is open to anyone with an entry pass. Emerald Pools, the Watchman Trail from near the visitor center, and Canyon Overlook on the east side of the tunnel deliver a great deal of what people come for with no lottery entry and no specialist kit at all.
Zion hiking trails, sorted by what they actually ask of you →
Planning the day
Two things decide how a first visit goes, and neither is which trail you pick.
The first is parking. Zion Canyon is shuttle-served for most of the year rather than driven, and the practical consequence is that the visitor center lot fills — early, and long before the trails do. Arriving to find it full is the single most common way a day here starts badly. Staying in Springdale sidesteps the problem entirely, because the town has its own free shuttle line to the pedestrian entrance and you can walk to it. Driving in from St. George means either leaving early enough to matter or parking in Springdale and joining the same line. The questions at the foot of this page cover how the two shuttle lines actually work.
The second is which season you have chosen without realizing it. The park is functionally four different destinations across the year — a busy spring, a hot and storm-prone summer, a crowded autumn and a quiet, icy winter — and a plan built for one of them can be actively wrong in another. Angels Landing in February and the Narrows in August are not harder versions of the same hikes; they are different activities with different equipment.
Where to stay
Lodging near Zion is really a line of four places along the same highway, and they are different propositions rather than different price points.
Springdale is the village at the south entrance — walkable to the gate, backed onto the same cliffs, and small. Its room count is fixed by geography and does not grow with demand, which is what makes a peak-season booking there an exercise in planning ahead rather than shopping around.
Virgin, La Verkin and Hurricane are the working towns strung along the way in. They have the campgrounds and RV parks, the outfitters, and the turnoff for Kolob Terrace. They are also where Sand Hollow and Quail Creek are, so a stay here is as much about the reservoirs as about the park.
St. George is the city at the far end, and it is a different kind of trip: a base for a week in southern Utah rather than a bed near a trailhead. The question of which end of that line suits you is answered below.
Beyond Zion
Zion is the closest of several parks to St. George, not the only one. Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon are all day trips from the same base, and each is a different kind of landscape rather than more of the same.
Frequently asked questions
How far is Zion National Park from St. George?
About forty miles, and under an hour by car to the south entrance at Springdale. That drive is the whole argument for basing yourself in St. George rather than in the canyon: lodging in Springdale is limited and priced accordingly, while St. George has the airport, the hospital, the restaurants and the golf, and puts Snow Canyon, Sand Hollow and Quail Creek within the same radius. The trade is the morning drive, which matters most in spring and autumn when the park fills early. If your trip is built around one long day in the canyon, stay in Springdale. If it is built around a week in southern Utah, stay in St. George.
How many days do you need in Zion?
One full day covers the canyon: a long hike, a short one, and the shuttle between them. Two days is the point of diminishing crowding rather than diminishing returns, because the second day is what lets you start at first light on the trail you most want and treat the afternoon as optional. Three or more, and you should be spending one of them somewhere other than Zion Canyon — Kolob, the east side, or the reservoirs and slot canyons back toward St. George. Visitors who give the park a week almost always report that the best day was the one they spent outside the shuttle corridor.
Do you have to take the shuttle in Zion?
For most of the year, yes. Private vehicles are barred from the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive through the busy months and a free shuttle runs the length of it instead, stopping at the trailheads; a second free line runs through Springdale to the pedestrian entrance, so you can leave the car at your lodging. In the quietest part of winter the road reopens to cars and the canyon shuttle stops running. Two things are true year round and catch people out: the shuttle does not serve Kolob Canyons or Kolob Terrace, which are always driven, and the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway on the east side is a public road you drive yourself.
When is the best time of year to visit Zion?
Spring and autumn are the best conditions and the worst crowds, and the two are related. Summer in the canyon is hot rather than unbearable — the walls give shade the surrounding desert does not — but afternoon thunderstorms from midsummer into early autumn bring flash flooding, which is a genuine hazard in the Narrows and in every slot canyon on the plateau. Winter is the underrated season: the canyon is quiet, the red rock under snow is the reason photographers come, and lodging is easier to get. The cost is ice on the shaded switchbacks, which closes or seriously complicates Angels Landing, and a shorter day.
Where can you camp in and around Zion?
Inside the park there are two campgrounds in Zion Canyon near the south entrance and a small primitive one high on Kolob Terrace, and demand exceeds them by a wide margin — canyon sites are reserved months ahead. Outside the park the choice is much wider: private campgrounds and RV parks in Springdale and along the highway through Virgin and La Verkin, and public campgrounds at the reservoirs closer to St. George. Dispersed camping on the surrounding BLM and Forest Service ground is legal in places and restricted in others, so check the managing agency for the specific area rather than assuming.
Can you take dogs into Zion?
Almost nowhere, and this surprises people every week. The Pa'rus Trail is the only trail in Zion that allows dogs; every other trail, and the shuttle, does not. Dogs are otherwise limited to roads, parking areas and campgrounds, and cannot be left in a vehicle in the heat. The practical answer for a dog-owning trip is to hike the desert closer to St. George, where the rules are looser, and treat Zion as the day somebody stays behind.