It’s difficult to do Zion National Park justice with words, you have to experience it with you own eyes, ears, and feet! The best we can say is that it is on our “must return list”. The entire Kanab, UT area is incredible! The red rock cliffs, slot canyons, and mountains of Zion make for an adventurer’s paradise whether you are in to burning calories or motor fuel! The only thing Zion lacks is solitude. It is a busy park with a ton to offer, but advanced planning is critical to getting the most out of your visit.
Zion Canyon Shuttle
It is important to note that from about March to September only shuttles are allowed on the scenic drive in the canyon. If you want to hike Angel’s Landing, the Narrows, Emerald Pools, or any of the other hikes in the canyon you will need to ride the shuttle. In the current state of the pandemic, advance tickets are required to ride the shuttle. Check the Zion website for current information. You are also welcome to ride a bike or walk the scenic drive, but we opted for the shuttle.
Hiking
A bucket list hike for many is Angel’s Landing. The hike is scenic, challenging and thrilling! For the true thrill seekers the final 1/2 mile ascent on the chains along narrow cliffs is rewarded with exhilarating views from Angel’s Landing. With a 4, 7, and 9 year-old in our crew we decided there was a fine line between brave and crazy so we settled for Scout’s Lookout just prior to the chains and made a pact to come back when the boys are older and conquer it together! The canyon views from Scout’s Lookout were incredible and we really enjoyed the challenge of the hike. It has a lot of elevation gain, culminating with 21 switchbacks known as “Walter’s Wiggles”, the most physically challenging part of the hike. Our boys crushed those switchbacks! A shorter option would be stopping and turning around at about one mile. The view down the canyon at this point was pretty amazing.
A great hike that doesn’t require the shuttle is The Watchman. The trail leaves from the Visitor Center and culminates with awesome views of the canyon from the South. This was fairly easy elevation gain compared to Scout’s Landing, but had amazing views of the canyon as well. Be sure to follow the “Loop Trail” at the end to get better views down through the canyon from Watchman Overlook.
Biking
Zion is a great park for biking! We really enjoyed biking the 3 1/2 mile Pa’rus Trail, which was primarily flat and paved. Our bikes also came in handy when we couldn’t find parking at the Visitor Center and had to park at the museum. We were able to bike to the Visitor Center from there! You can also ride your bikes along the shuttle route into the canyon, if you’re up for the 17-mile roundtrip.
Wire Pass Trail (Outside of Zion)
Since we decided hiking the Narrows in the Spring with young kids when the water was freezing cold from snow melt wasn’t the best idea we were on the hunt for a slot canyon to hike. We hit the jackpot with the Wire Pass Trail to Buckskin Gulch! This trailhead was about an hour from Kanab, but totally worth it! This trail has it all, narrow slot canyon walls, ladders, petroglyphs when you exit the slot canyon into Buckskin Gulch, and so many cool rock formations! It did require some dirt road driving to reach the trailhead but is passable with 2WD. It was incredible to walk through a canyon touching both walls at the same time. Once you get through the super narrow Wire Pass, you can hike as long as you want down Buckskin Gulch before turning around. If you want the trail to yourself, definitely arrive early in the morning. We arrived later morning and it wasn’t too bad, but when we got back to the parking lot it was pretty busy for the afternoon. Look this up on Recreation.gov ahead of time to buy your permit so you don’t have to spend extra time at the trailhead, especially if you don’t have good cellphone service (it’s $6 per person).
Best time to visit:
Spring and fall are the most ideal times for visiting Zion, the summer temperatures can reach over 100 degrees. If you really want to do the Narrows think about a summer or fall visit when the river depths would be lower and the water warmer.
Where we stayed:
We enjoyed our Airbnb in Kanab, UT. It had three bedrooms to spread out in and a large garage. We could fit our Expedition Max with the top rack storage in the garage! We chose Kanab because it had more options for places to stay, and it was about 40 minutes to Zion. The drive into the park was interesting and we even saw Bighorn Sheep one of the days we were exiting in the evening. From Kanab, you’ll enter the park from the East and go through the one-mile tunnel which drops you off inside the Zion Canyon. The boys loved this part of the drive!
Big shoutout to Honey’s Marketplace in Kanab! This market has very good prices for a rural market outside a National Park and has everything you’d need. We needed a birthday cake for Josh, who was turning 10 at the Grand Canyon. We planned to pickup a cake at Honey’s on our drive from Bryce Canyon, but they were closed on Sunday. A super nice lady from the bakery took the cake home and met us at Honey’s on our way through! This was SO NICE, and saved us! Also, the cake was delicious!
Other things to do:
The Narrows is another bucket list hike that would be great in the summer!
The Zion Canyon Overlook Trail looks like great views and the trailhead is east of the tunnel, no shuttle required.
Emerald Pools in another popular trail inside the canyon, and does require a shuttle.
If you are up to doing a 6-mile round trip hike enter the lottery to do The Wave! This is a permit only hike and only so many permits are awarded per day. You can enter four months ahead of time online or the day before in person. The Wave is not inside Zion, but leaves from the same trailhead as the Wire Pass Trail about one hour from Kanab. We entered, but did not get chosen, maybe someday we’ll do it!
Another hike we did just outside of Zion was Water Canyon, this was a moderate hike with some elevation gain. Being outside of Zion it was much less crowded, however we still preferred the Zion hikes even with the crowds.
