Zion National Park

CanyonsUtah,United States

An 800-metre gorge in Utah waded up into a slot at its head, with a chain-assisted climb to a fin of rock above the canyon.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Nov

September is the Narrows at its lowest and warmest. By October you want a dry bib for the wade. The canyon cottonwoods turn gold then and hold into early November. The shuttle runs to late November, when the crowds finally thin.

Year-round The sandstone gorge, the river and the Angels Landing chains are there every day, and the park never closes. Heat, ice, river level and the shuttle season all follow the calendar.

Zion National Park is a gorge 800 metres deep in the red sandstone of southwest Utah, and neither of its two famous walks has a trail. One of them is the river. Upstream from the end of the road the Virgin River fills its canyon wall to wall, so you wade, sometimes waist-deep. In the Wall Street stretch the sandstone stands 300 metres sheer and closes to under ten metres apart, and the water stays snowmelt-cold through the hottest part of summer. The other walk is a fin of rock. The built path up Angels Landing ends at a saddle, and the last eight hundred metres follow a bare sandstone spine where you haul yourself along bolted chains with 300 metres of air on both sides. At the top the valley runs both ways from the ledge you are standing on. A visiting minister looked up at that summit in 1916 and decided only an angel could land on it. The canyon floor is gentler than any of that. The paved Pa'rus Trail follows the river along the bottom, open to bikes and wheelchairs, and it is the easy way to feel small under 600-metre walls. At the Canyon Junction bridge, twenty minutes before sunset, the highest towers hold their orange long after the floor has gone into shade. The Zion–Mount Carmel Highway of 1930 switchbacks up the east wall and bores 1.7 kilometres through the rock, its galleries opening onto sudden windows of red cliff. All this rock is petrified sand, the dunes of one of the biggest deserts the Earth has known. California condors were down to twenty-two birds alive anywhere in 1982; one hatched in a cliff cave here in 2019 and flew that September. The canyon was Mukuntuweap to the Southern Paiute, and the name it goes by now came from a farmer. Isaac Behunin, working the floor in the 1860s, said a man could worship God among these cathedrals as well as in any church built by hand, and called it Zion.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Angels Landing is by lottery only — there is a seasonal draw and a day-before draw for the chained section, and no walk-up access to it at all.
The Narrows is walked in the river and needs neoprene socks and a stick — rangers close it above 150 cubic feet a second, or on a flash-flood watch, even under clear sky.
Never swallow the Virgin River — the park has warned about cyanotoxins in it since 2020, and a filter does not remove them, so carry every drop you plan to drink.
Take the short Canyon Overlook Trail on the east side — under two kilometres round trip, it ends at a railing-edged ledge with the whole main canyon spread out below.
Spring and autumn are the sweet spot — summer bakes the exposed trails above 38°C and draws the biggest crowds, while winter can dust the red rock with snow.

Things to do

1
Haul yourself up the chains of Angels Landing
The last half-mile leaves the built trail and follows a bare sandstone fin, where you pull yourself along bolted chains with the canyon dropping away 300 metres on both sides. At the top the whole valley opens beneath your boots, the payoff that has made this chain-hung spine one of the most exposed hikes in the country.
2
Wade up the river into The Narrows
Here the only trail is the Virgin River itself: you wade upstream, sometimes waist-deep, as the canyon squeezes to a corridor barely wide enough for the water. In the Wall Street section the sandstone rises sheer for 300 metres and closes to under ten metres apart, and the river stays snowmelt-cold even in the heat of summer.
3
Time the Canyon Junction bridge for sunset
Ride the shuttle to the Canyon Junction stop and walk out onto the bridge where the road crosses the Virgin River, arriving twenty minutes before the sun drops. From this open stretch you get the clearest line up to the tallest walls, watching the highest towers hold their burning orange long after the valley floor has gone into shade.
4
Drive the Zion–Mount Carmel Highway
The 1930 highway switchbacks up the canyon's east wall and bores straight through the rock in a 1.7-kilometre tunnel, its galleries opening onto sudden windows of red cliff. Beyond it the land changes completely, into the slickrock domes and checkerboard-etched sandstone of the park's quieter east side.
5
Stroll the canyon floor on the Pa'rus Trail
The paved Pa'rus Trail follows the Virgin River along the flat canyon bottom, the one path in the park open to bikes and wheelchairs. It is the easy way to stand small beneath 600-metre walls, with the water running on one side and the Watchman rising ahead.

Watch

Nearby

80 km