Zion Canyon and it's eight miles and there's at the beautiful Virgin River running through it and these towering Canyon walls up on the side and that's a part you usually hear about but there's also another portion of Zion Canyon that heads out to the east entrance and that's a road you can drive on. It's the

Mount Carmel Road and you actually get to go through a really cool tunnel on there and there's some really cool rock formations along that road. Now the other two lesser-known parts are the Kolob Canyons. There's Kolob Canyon which is about a mile away from the Zion Canyon and it's a wilderness area that is you know the trails aren't packed there a lot of sand they're not really well marked but a super cool place to go and then the last one is the Kolob Terrace

Road which is a drive also a mile away from the main Canyon and so when you visit Zion there are those four sections of the park to visit but the most popular one is Zion's Canyon that's where there's the Angels Landing and the

Narrows. Next question what is there to do in Zion? Well of course there are the very famous adventure hikes. What I love the most about Zion is that you can go on some legit adventures without backpacking 15 miles in. The very famous

Angels Landing with the cool chain section it's only a five mile hike. It's rigorous but it's only five miles or the Narrows I think when I was younger and didn't know much about it I thought that this was like a day-long trip but it doesn't have to be that way it's only that way if you start from the top and go down to the bottom but most of us locals and visitors we start at the bottom we go on the cool riverside walk and then we get our gears like our water boots and our neoprene socks and our hiking sticks and then we just walk up the river until we want to turn around. A lot of people will go about three miles and then turn around but it's really up to you and we've seen all ages of people hiking the Narrows and the Angels Landing the Narrows super cool amazing hikes but you don't have to be doing those rigorous hikes to enjoy Zion there's also some very nice walks and a couple of our favorites are the riverside walk which is at the end of the canyon and that is just an asphalt trail I wouldn't try pushing a wheelchair up it but a stroller yeah I would do that and it's just a mile each way and you get like a little taste of the Narrows without actually getting in the river and then there's also the

Weeping Rock which is only like 0.4 miles around trip and beautiful so some great trails right there and then I'm going to tell you one of my little personal favorites that not many people go on but it's just the grotto trail it's just between if I'm on the grotto the Zion visitor center stop it's just right along the road but I mean the thing that's amazing about Zion is you can see the canyon no matter where you're at and so even if you're along the road it's amazing. Next is to just go for a drive or a ride riding the Zion shuttle is fun and the bus drivers do a great job narrating the canyon and it's you know it'll take you about an hour to do the whole loop if you don't get off the shuttle but most people do and they get off and kind of check out what there is at the stops but riding on the shuttle is fun and then if you don't want to ride the shuttle or if you want to in addition you can go at the Zion

Mount Carmel Road and so scenic getting to go through that tunnel and really cool rock formation so a totally different experience than going up Zion

Canyon. Now if you really want to get adventurous you can go into the Kolob areas the Kolob Terrace Road is super cool you actually get to see some water there water is kind of scarce in Zion but you get to see water there and it's higher elevation so you're getting away from that hot hot heat if you're here in the summer. And then lastly there's Kolob just the Kolob area of the park which is a fun place to do some adventure hiking and some great hikes where there's just you're right in the middle of some slot canyons so there you go nutshell of what there is to do in Zion. Next up are the shuttles whoo shuttles in one minute I can totally do this okay there's two shuttles you can take there's one in the town of Springdale which is right outside of

Zion and that's just to get visitors from the city to the other stop where you can catch a shuttle into the canyon. Zion is so popular now that there's not enough parking at the visitor center for all the visitors so there's lots of paid parking along the street in Springdale and you can just catch the free shuttle and head on into the park. The second shuttle is right from the visitor center and it will take you up Zion Canyon there's nine stops and it runs pretty much the entire year but it's it's mandatory March through

November now every year it does kind of change depending on visitation but that's a ballpark you can check the website but Zion Canyon is only accessible via shuttle for those months of the year and guests that stay at the lodge they can drive up to the lodge but they can't go past the lodge so even if you are staying in the park you can only go so far oh and you don't need a reservation to ride the shuttle at this time. Next up do you need reservations to visit Zion?

No thank goodness you don't Zion has been going through some major growing pains the last few years holy smokes it's gone up a lot but it's because Zion is amazing and that's why so many people are coming but at this time you don't need a reservation for anything in the park except to do part of Angels Landing you can still do a good portion of the Angels Landing trail without a reservation in fact you can do the first two miles of it it's just the last half mile it's called the hogs back and that's where you're holding on to those chains that's where you need a permit to do that and I'm not even going to tell you when the reservation window opens because it changes every year and I don't want to give you wrong information so my only advice there is to just check the National Parks website a few months before your trip so you kind of know what reservations you need to get and the conditions now if you're thinking about planning a trip to Zion I like said I am going through this at lightning speed but we have a whole playlist of things about Zion so if you want more in depth on anything we have a whole trip planner video that's about an hour long that will walk you through all the details so check that out if you are interested. Next do you have to be a hiker to enjoy Zion? I would say no I think Zion is better if you can go do Angels Landing and the Narrows for sure but just even as you drive through the town of Springdale you will be able to tell that this is a special place I can't believe that as many times as I've been to this park I mean I've been going here since I was a kid I live four hours away from here so this is like a yearly thing it's just majestic to me that the sandstone the sunlight hitting the sandstone hearing the Virgin River everything about Zion is just incredible and getting to see it from the shuttle is cool and getting to see it from the road is cool and even if you only make it to a couple overlooks that's okay too my parents are retired and they're still in really good shape but one of their favorite things to do is just to go along that Zion River walk and so I would say absolutely you can enjoy Zion without being a major hiker. Next is how long should your trip be to Zion? I really think that depends on what you like to do if you're a hiker you could easily spend three or four days in this park going on all the hikes if you're not a hiker I would say you could comfortably do this park in a day or a day and a half if you're just doing drives and overlooks so it really depends on what you like to do and one other thing to know about Zion is unlike a lot of other national parks that have some touristy things outside of it to do Zion really doesn't have that so it's not like there's plays and obstacle courses and gun ranges like there aren't things like that surrounding Zion and so Zion's kind of the show so that's just an important thing to know is like you come to Zion and you do the park but there's not a whole lot of outside like adventures besides there are some really cool other hiking overlook experiences surrounding the park and some of Utah State parks let's talk weather in Zion caliente it is so hot at Zion in the summer in fact

I avoid coming to Zion in the summer at all costs it is so hot so I mean something you can look online and see what the temperature is here and that will kind of give you an idea but not completely because if you're out in the

Sun these red rocks they hold the heat and it radiates off and so even 70 degrees can feel quite hot today it's in the 60s and it's amazing it's a beautiful day to be out here and most of day I haven't even wearing my jacket but

I'm in the shade right now which is another point is that it might say it's 80 degrees outside if you get in one of those slot canyons where there's no Sun it can be cold the other thing to know is that the water in Zion is super cold the Virgin River that people hike in to go do the narrows is is chilly and cold and the other thing to know about Zion is that it actually does get snow when we visited here in December November you'll see snow and ice along the canyon walls and it's really quite beautiful so just things to be aware and I would say like the best time of year to come here if you want good weather I would think maybe October and even like later April one other thing to know about if you're trying to pick a time to go let me just tell you a couple of benefits of certain times of the year we're here over spring break the first week of April it's beautiful a couple of downsides is that the trees don't have any green on them and the red rock with the green leaves is one of our favorite things about the park something good about being here right now is that there's waterfalls everywhere and red rocks and waterfalls are they're kind of rare and fun to see and the other little caution about coming in the spring is that the Virgin

River is quite fast and sometimes it's so fast that they close and narrows down because if the water is going too fast it's dangerous and there is a risk for flash floods so yeah I think maybe the sweet spot would be October here in

Zion for the time to go now the last question that might be on everyone's mind is is Zion a safe park to go to I think Zion has gotten some bad publicity over the last couple of years because of Falls particularly at Angels Landing but in my personal opinion I think Zion is a safe park to visit and let me tell you why the Rangers do a really good job about letting people be aware of the risks there's flash flood warnings listed places they talk about the dangers of climbing Angels Landing and things like that I think personally for our family on this trip I have I have four children and I chose not to take them on Angels Landing I don't think they're ready to go on that they're not gonna tell me I can't there's an age limit on Angels Landing but I'm choosing because I know my kids and I know their ages I think this will be better for them when they're older same thing with the narrows it wasn't a good idea this trip if the river is really fast right now and my kids are not that tall yet so that I think the river would knock them over and be dangerous and I so I think that if you go to Zion and you know your own limitations and have a good head about you you're gonna be safe it's gonna be fine and your family's gonna have an amazing trip