Hiking in Zion National Park
Zion's trail list is short enough to read in a minute and varied enough that reading it is not much help. A paved riverside stroll and a technical canyon descent are both on it. So is a hike performed entirely in a river, and one whose final section is a chain bolted to a fin of sandstone with a five-hundred-foot drop on either side. Sorting by distance, which is how most trail lists are organized, hides exactly the thing that matters.
So these are grouped by commitment instead — by permit, exposure and water, which are the three reasons a Zion day goes wrong.
Short and easy
Paved or gently graded, no exposure, and no reason to skip them because they are the ones everybody can do. Pa'rus is also the only trail in the park that allows dogs and bicycles.
- The Pa'rus Trail: Zion's Paved, Pet-Friendly Path — The Pa'rus Trail: paved, level, and the only trail in Zion where bikes and dogs are allowed.
- Zion's Emerald Pools Trail — Emerald Pools: three pools, three difficulty levels, one trail — how to pick which one you actually want.
- Canyon Overlook: Zion's Best Short Hike — Canyon Overlook: the biggest view in Zion for the least effort — on the east side, with no shuttle involved.
Half-day walks with real climbing
Steady ascent, drop-offs you notice but are not scrambling along, and views that justify the effort. These are the routes to choose when Angels Landing is booked out.
- The Watchman Trail in Zion — The Watchman Trail: the canyon hike you can do without the shuttle, straight from the visitor centre.
- Kolob Canyons: Zion Without the Crowds — Kolob Canyons: Zion's separate northwestern entrance, five paved miles into red finger canyons, with a fraction of the crowds.
In the river
The Narrows is walked in the Virgin River rather than beside it, which changes the footwear, the season and the weather forecast that matters.
- Hiking The Narrows in Zion — The Narrows: hiking up the river itself. Why flow and forecast decide everything, and what you actually need on your feet.
Permit required
Managed by lottery, checked on the trail, and not something to plan a day around without one in hand.
- Angels Landing: Zion's Most Thrilling Hike — Angels Landing: the permit is the hard part, not the hike. How the lottery works and whether the chains are actually for you.
- The Subway: Zion's Iconic Canyoneering Hike — The Subway: a permit-only route through a tubular slot in Zion's backcountry, and an honest account of what it demands.
Choosing well on a first visit
Most first-time visitors have one day and want Angels Landing. If you have a permit, take it. If you do not, the honest substitute is not another famous name — it is the walk to Scout Lookout, the saddle where the chained section begins and where permits are checked. Getting there needs no permit, involves the same switchbacks, and is where a good many of the photographs attributed to the summit were actually taken.
The other common misjudgment is the Narrows. It is not a trail in any ordinary sense: you walk upstream in the Virgin River, on rounded cobbles, in water that stays cold in every season. That is entirely doable and thoroughly worth it, but it wants proper footwear rather than trainers, and it wants the weather forecast for the whole watershed rather than the one for the canyon — a storm falling miles upstream is what produces a flash flood here. From midsummer into early autumn, when those storms are routine, check conditions before starting.
Heat is the third. The canyon walls give real shade the surrounding desert does not, which makes Zion feel more forgiving in summer than it is. The exposed routes — Canyon Overlook on the east side, the switchbacks below Scout Lookout, anything on Kolob Terrace — get full sun, and the early-start discipline that locals apply to desert trails applies here just as much.
When the canyon is full
Zion Canyon fills early in spring and autumn, and a full canyon is a genuinely worse day. Kolob Canyons, the park's northern section off I-15, has its own trailheads and a fraction of the traffic, and is closer to St. George than Springdale is. Beyond the park boundary, the desert around St. George holds slot canyons, lava tubes and slickrock of its own with no shuttle and no queue.
Frequently asked questions
Which Zion hikes need a permit?
Some of the best-known ones do. Angels Landing is the significant case — the chained final section is managed by a permit lottery, and rangers check permits at Scout Lookout, so this is not a rule you can walk past. Anyone can hike as far as Scout Lookout without one, and the view from there is the one most photographs are actually taken from. The Subway and a top-down traverse of the Narrows are also permitted, as is all overnight backcountry travel. Everything else in the canyon — Emerald Pools, Watchman, Pa'rus, Canyon Overlook, Observation Point from the east, and the Narrows walked upstream and back from the Temple of Sinawava — needs nothing but an entry pass. Permit systems get revised, so confirm the current rules with the National Park Service before you build a day around one.
What is the drive through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel like?
The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, drilled through the sandstone in the late 1920s, carries the highway between the canyon floor and the park's east side. It was built for the vehicles of its day and is too narrow for two large ones to pass, so anything oversized — most RVs, trailers and large trucks — is escorted through one direction at a time, which requires a permit and involves waiting. Cyclists and pedestrians are not allowed in it at all. If you are driving something big, plan the east side around this rather than discovering it at the tunnel mouth.