What changed in Zion

Hurricane, about 25 minutes’ drive from the park, and Kanab, about 40 minutes from the East Entrance, both have whole houses a group or a family can rent near Zion rather than two or three rooms. Our where-to-stay page linked each town’s list of hotels and other places to stay. It now links a list of each town’s whole homes to rent beside it: houses, cabins and apartments in Hurricane, including the homes around Sand Hollow, and mostly houses in Kanab.

Both lists are Vrbo’s. Vrbo pays us a commission on a stay booked through one of those links, through CJ, the affiliate network that also runs Booking.com’s and Expedia’s programs. The disclosure page now names Vrbo among the companies that pay us, and the privacy page says what a click on a Vrbo link passes through.

The $89.20 passenger seat at the top of the Hell’s Revenge listing no longer has a date on sale; to drive your own UTV it is $101.25 a person on the morning tour to 30 November, $135 an adult at sunset to 29 November, and $130 at 12:15 p.m. from 12 February 2027. Mild to Wild’s afternoon rafting trip has no date on sale before 13 March 2027, though it had listed trips to 8 November. Adrift Adventures’ $200 youth price on its Arches and Canyonlands 4x4 tours now covers ages 4 to 15, and $210 is the adult price from 16.

On the Grand Canyon page, Maverick’s helicopter flight keeps its $552.12 7 a.m. price on most dates in November, but from 1 December not every daytime flight is $598.99: a few on 2 April, 2 July and 2 September 2027 are $748.66. Its sunset flight now costs $673.98 to $1,011.13, the top of that on 28 December.

UDOT’s update of 30 October sets the second week of overnight tunnel closures, 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Monday 2 to Friday morning 6 November, after the first week of 26 to 30 October. The Park Service’s alerts for the October nights and for the park’s 26 to 30 October paving have come down, and it had posted none for the November nights on 1 November.

On the Grand Canyon page, Xanterra’s notice of 28 October keeps its South Rim hotels closed through 19 November and now has Phantom Ranch closed through at least 31 January 2027, not 19 November. The Moab page now says the free Arches shuttle ended its fall season on 31 October; it is due back in spring 2027.

The Angels Landing permits page now notes that Recreation.gov issues no permits for 19 to 22 April 2027, for scheduled trail maintenance.

Our tunnel page’s weekly update of 1 November said that UDOT’s road-status page, like its project page, set the overnight tunnel closures for Monday 2 to Friday morning 6 November. It did not: on 1 November the road-status page still listed only the nights of 26 to 30 October, and only the project page’s update of 30 October gives 2 to 6 November. The page also said UDOT had worked nights in Springdale at mileposts 30 to 32 since 26 October, with Rockville’s mileposts beside them. The 30 October update moves the Springdale crews to mileposts 30 to 32, at the west end of town, and starts night work there as early as Monday 2 November, Monday night to Friday morning through the end of 2026; its crews at Rockville, mileposts 26 to 29, expect no traffic impacts. Our changes entry of 1 November on the tunnel nights and Phantom Ranch repeated the Rockville mistake and has been put right.

Zion Helicopters’ three flights have dates on sale through the winter: from December 2026 through February 2027 only from Friday to Sunday, except every day from 26 December to 3 January and from 12 to 21 February. On 19 October they had no date on sale in February 2027 and only three in January. From April to October 2027 the 35- and 100-mile flights have a date every day, and the 55-mile flight every day but Tuesday and Wednesday.

The guided e-bike ride up the Scenic Drive has dates on sale through 31 December 2026 and again from September 2027, with none from January through August. East Zion Adventures’ horseback ride, which had no date on sale from January through April 2027, now has dates in January, February and March 2027, with none from 7 to 20 January or from 14 March to 28 April. Its Red Rock Slot Canyon tour has dates through 31 December 2026 and no longer any in 2027, and its Crimson Canyon tour has none from 1 December 2026 until September 2027.

Our canyoneering page said East Zion Adventures’ two canyons that are not on Viator, Hidden Creek and Rock Drop, refund 80% of the price up to 24 hours before the trip. That is what the company’s FAQ says, but it is not what a booking agrees to. The terms at checkout keep 10% of the total if you cancel any time up to 30 days out, half from 30 days to 48 hours out, and everything inside 48 hours, and a no-show gets nothing back.

The page now gives both and says which one a booking carries. It still says that checkout offers the company’s 15% trip protection, which lets you cancel or reschedule up to 12 hours before and get the ticket price back, less the protection and processing fees. The page now gives each canyon’s prices by who goes, too: Hidden Creek is $89 for a rappeller and $29 for someone who hikes along, and Rock Drop $149 for an adult rappeller, $139 aged 8 to 17 and $79 for a passenger from age 5.

Our Zion to Moab page said that on 20 October Recreation.gov had the Fiery Furnace’s self-guided permits scheduled only to 31 October, with nothing yet for November. On 27 October they were scheduled every day to 30 November, each day’s released at 8 a.m. Mountain Time a week ahead, with none yet in December; the ranger-led hikes ended for the year on 24 October.

The page also said Canyonlands’ Colorado River Overlook Road in The Needles was still closed on the road report of 19 October. The report of 24 October lists it as impassable after the rains. The park’s alerts now carry a caution for the Mineral Bottom switchbacks and the west side of the White Rim Road, passable but slippery and muddy, and not recommended until they dry out, as the road report already said.

Our Grand Canyon page said the helicopter flight’s $552.12 price ended on 25 October, that later daytime flights cost $598.99 to $814.59 to February 2027, and that every daytime flight in March and April 2027 cost $645.86. The listing has been repriced since 20 October. The $552.12 is now its 7 a.m. flight’s, under an offer for travel by 30 November: on 29 October and most dates in November 2026, though not 12, 19 to 21 or 25 to 29 November. The other daytime flights to 30 November are $598.99 to $814.59, and from 1 December every daytime flight is $598.99, March and April 2027 included. The sunset flight is still $673.98 to $908.33. The page’s table, its prose and the trip card now say so, and the card’s rating is 4.9 from 2,777 reviews.

Our tunnel page said the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel was not closed at night, and it and three other pages said UDOT’s overnight closures, postponed on 24 September, had no new dates. They have dates now. UDOT closes the highway between Canyon Junction and the tunnel’s east end from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the nights of Monday 26 to Friday morning 30 October 2026, while crews pull fiber-optic cable through the tunnel. Its project page’s update of 23 October adds Monday 2 to Friday morning 6 November; its road-status page and the Park Service’s alert give only the first week so far. Cars are turned around at Canyon Junction and about 50 feet before the tunnel’s east portal.

The same pages said the park would repave the stretch the September rockfall damaged at a date not yet given. It set 26 to 30 October for that work, east of Canyon Junction at the first switchback, with one-way traffic and minor delays.

We also took out UDOT’s 15 October plan for daytime paving on the west side of the tunnel through 2 November, which its update of 23 October no longer lists. The pages now give the closure nights and the paving dates, and the tunnel page says which source lists which week.

The Desert Pearl Inn, at 707 Zion Park Blvd, is one of the hotels the Town of Springdale’s shuttle map names at stop 4, 0.8 miles and about 15 minutes’ walk from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center. Our Springdale hotels page had it in its stop and pet tables with no way to book it. It now has a card beside the stop-4 Best Western.

The card goes to the inn’s listing on Expedia; Booking.com does not sell it. Expedia pays us a commission on a stay booked through that link, through CJ, the affiliate network that also runs Booking.com’s program. The disclosure page now names Expedia among the companies that pay us, and the privacy page says what a click on an Expedia link passes through.

Our Zion to Moab page said the White Rim Road was open again after October’s rains. Canyonlands’ road report of 20 October does list the road open, but it adds that travel on the west side is not advised because of muddy, slick conditions, and it does not recommend the Mineral Bottom road either. The page now says so.

Our tunnel page quoted UDOT’s 15 and 16 October posts on the fiber project, including nighttime work inside the park restarting on 26 October. By 24 October those posts had gone from UDOT’s Zion area page, which lists only the project itself: fiber under construction at SR-9 mileposts 38 to 41 and 53 to 56 inside the park, with occasional one-way traffic and moderate delays, and no active status posts. The page now says that, and keeps the dated posts as dated.

Our canyoneering page said that East Zion Adventures’ Coral Sands half day was in Viator’s full list of Zion experiences, with Stone Hollow and ROAM’s six-hour day, and pointed readers there to book it. It is not in that list. Viator files Coral Sands under Utah rather than Zion National Park, so it appears in neither the Zion list nor Viator’s Zion climbing category. Stone Hollow and ROAM’s six-hour day are in the Zion list.

The page now says so in its East Zion Adventures section and above the booking links. Coral Sands is still on Viator, at the $177.58 a person the page prints.

Our Zion to Moab page said the free Moab-Arches Shuttle ran every 15 minutes from downtown Moab to the Arches Visitor Center and every 30 minutes from there to the Delicate Arch and Windows trailheads. It is the other way round: the town route runs every 30 minutes and the route inside the park every 15. The shuttle’s own page had the two reversed when the page was written and now gives 30 and 15, as Moab’s tourism office does, and as the Moab Sun News has since 10 September from Grand County’s signed agreement with the Park Service.

The page now gives each route its hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from town and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside the park, with the last bus leaving Delicate Arch at 4:05 p.m. It also says the shuttle is a pilot due back in spring 2027: from 1 March to 30 June by the tourism office, and from mid-March to mid-June by the county’s agreement. Its season this year, 1 September to 31 October, is unchanged.

The stop table listed the Canyon Ranch Motel at stop 4, as the town’s stop map still does. The motel stood at 668 Zion Park Blvd, and that address is now the Best Western Plus Zion Canyon Inn & Suites; the Visitors Bureau’s map, which the town also posts, marks the Best Western at stop 4. The table now says so, a paragraph below it places the Best Western, and it is carded with the page’s other Springdale hotels.

We now cover the Grand Canyon from Zion. The North Rim is the close one, about 122 miles from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center through the tunnel and Kanab; the South Rim is about 250 miles away; and the West Rim, Grand Canyon West, is on the Hualapai Reservation outside the national park, a day trip from Las Vegas.

The page compares four trips on Viator: Jupiter Legend’s Grand Canyon West day from Las Vegas ($129 for the tour alone, $178 with lunch and the Skywalk), National Park Express’s South Rim day from Las Vegas ($124, or $94 on Saturdays, on sale to 30 December 2026), Kanab Tour Company’s guided UTV day to North Rim viewpoints in the Kaibab National Forest ($289 each for two, until 30 November and again from 1 May 2027), and Maverick’s helicopter flight from Las Vegas with a landing below the rim of Grand Canyon West.

What it found that a reader at Zion needs:

• The North Rim is open to cars until 30 November 2026, or the first major snowstorm, with no fuel, food or drinking water since mid-October; the Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge in July 2025. The roads to Point Imperial and Cape Royal are closed from 15 October to sunrise on 3 November for repairs.
• No hotel inside the park at the South Rim takes overnight guests while Stage 4 water restrictions last, after flash-flood damage to the Transcanyon Waterline. The Park Service’s alert runs from 30 August to 16 November 2026; Xanterra says its hotels’ closure runs through 19 November, with arrivals from 20 November going ahead. Tusayan’s hotels are open.
• The canyon’s three rims keep Arizona time, an hour behind Zion from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, and the Las Vegas tours’ pickup times are Las Vegas time.
• Non-US residents pay the $100 nonresident fee at the Grand Canyon as well as at Zion, on a tour too; Grand Canyon West charges no park fee.

The Las Vegas tours page, the itinerary and the tunnel page now link to it.

We now cover Moab from Zion. It is about 345 miles from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center by I-15 and I-70, 5 hours 20 minutes to 5 hours 56 minutes without stops by two OpenStreetMap routers; through the tunnel and US-89 it is shorter but slower, and the scenic way by Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef on Utah 12 and 24 is 354 to 356 miles and seven to eight hours of driving.

The page compares four tours on Viator, all from Moab: Moab Tourism Center’s Hell’s Revenge in a UTV you drive ($101.25 a person on the morning tours), Adrift Adventures’ backcountry 4x4 tours of Arches and of Canyonlands’ Island in the Sky and Shafer Trail ($210 each), and Mild to Wild’s afternoon half day on the Colorado River ($109.91, until 8 November and again from 13 March 2027).

What it found that a reader at Zion needs:

• Arches needs no timed-entry reservation in 2026, the Park Service announced on 18 February 2026; reservations are still required for Devils Garden Campground and the Fiery Furnace. It has set no rule for 2027.
• Neither Arches nor Canyonlands charges the $100 nonresident fee, which applies at 11 parks, Zion and Bryce Canyon among them. Each charges $30 a car.
• A free shuttle runs from downtown Moab into Arches from 1 September to 31 October 2026, for anyone with a park pass.
• Canyonlands’ White Rim Road is closed on its western side after rains, by the Park Service’s alert of 15 October 2026.

The itinerary, the Zion and Bryce page and the tunnel page now link to it.

The privacy page listed what Viator’s report shows us for each booking: the date it was made, the date of the trip, which trip it was, its total and our commission. That list was short. The report also shows Viator’s reference number for the booking, how many travelers it is for and the country Viator records for the customer; its status, whether it has been paid and, if it was canceled, when and by whom; which of our pages it is credited to; and, for some bookings, the exact link it came through.

It shows no name, no email address and no payment details, and the page still says so. It now names everything the report records about the customer: the country Viator records for them and how many people are traveling.

Our helicopter and scenic flights page gave Zion’s air-tour count for 2023, 31 flights, from the Park Service’s report for 2021 to 2023. Its report for 2024, published in March 2026, puts that year at 22 tours over Zion, against 684 allowed across seven operators, and lists Zion among the parks that qualify for the exemption from an air tour management plan on 2024’s count. The page, its summary and its answers now give 2024, and say that the count can still rise: 85% of the reports due for 2024 had come in when it was published.

Several other details were incomplete or out of date. Color Country Air Adventures’ tour list gives its Zion and Kolob Canyons flights 70 to 75 and 35 to 40 minutes, and its route notes give them 60 to 65 and 30 to 35. The helicopter page and the Kolob Canyons page printed only the first figures; both now cover the two. Zion Helicopters’ booking terms and its three listings say a flight needs five passengers to go (one line of the 35-mile listing says four), with another date or a full refund if too few book; the page now says so, and that the second seat a passenger over 250 lb must buy is paid to the operator on the day. The line on how far ahead each flight books on average is gone; in its place is what is on sale this winter, which is no date in February 2027 and three in January.

The page said Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines sells its day trip from Boulder City to Bryce Canyon, the one flight billed as crossing Zion. Scenic Airlines lists that trip with no price and no way to book it online, so the page no longer says it sells it. It also gave the day as nine hours; the airline’s page puts it at 8.5 to 9 hours in one place, 9 in another and eight in a third, so the page now says eight to nine.

The page also now defines a commercial air tour as the FAA does, below 5,000 feet and less than a mile from any feature in the park, and sets Zion Helicopters’ own statement that the park does not permit low-altitude tours directly over it beside the Park Service’s figures. The three flights’ prices, $209, $309 and $509 a person, were unchanged.

Every trip card leaving from Virgin said “15 miles west of Springdale”, which overstated the drive. Zion Helicopters’ base at 3050 East UT-9 is about 9 road miles from the center of Springdale and 10 from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, and the center of Virgin is about 13 from Springdale. The three helicopter cards now say 9 miles. Desert Bound Adventures’ Lamb’s Knoll trip, which meets beside the Kolob Terrace Road, now shows Virgin, west of Springdale, with no distance.

UDOT’s 15 October update keeps the crews paving SR-9 on the west side of the tunnel (mileposts 38 to 40), with daytime work Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., now expected through 2 November (our pages said 22 October). Its 16 October status post adds that nighttime work inside the park restarts on 26 October; it does not say whether that means overnight tunnel closures, and the pages say so.

We now cover Antelope Canyon, at Page, Arizona, about 120 miles from Zion Canyon through the tunnel and Kanab and about 280 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Every visit to the canyon is a tour with a Navajo guide: Navajo Parks and Recreation makes a guide mandatory at every Antelope Canyon location.

The page compares four tours on Viator: Dixie’s Lower Antelope Canyon tour ($94 a person, fees included), Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours’ Upper tour ($119, ages 8 and up), Dineh Tours’ Upper-and-Lower half day with hotel pickup in Page ($369.37, rising to $441.22 from April to September 2027), and Jupiter Legend’s 14- to 16-hour day from Las Vegas to Lower Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend ($239 an adult; $160 on Fridays from January 2027).

What it found that a reader coming from Zion needs:

• The tours keep Arizona time all year, an hour behind Zion and the Navajo Nation from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Daylight time ends on 1 November 2026 and runs again from 14 March to 7 November 2027.
• The Navajo permit fee is $15 a person on Navajo Parks and Recreation’s Lake Powell pages, and $8 on its general fee page; Dixie’s refunds it to a visitor who paid it at another of the canyons the same day.
• Lower Antelope Canyon allows no bag, clear ones included; Antelope Canyon Tours allows a clear bag into Upper.
• The holidays disagree. Navajo Parks and Recreation lists the tribal park closed on Thanksgiving, the day after, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day; some of the listings sell those dates.
• Lake Powell’s Antelope Canyon and Rainbow Bridge boat tours are unavailable until further notice, and the Park Service says Rainbow Bridge’s docks no longer reach land.

The Las Vegas tours page, the itinerary and the tunnel page now link to it.

Three of our pages said that you must turn right to enter the Canyon Overlook parking lot and turn right to leave it, and the Canyon Overlook page called it the Park Service’s rule. Our correction of 23 September added it. The Park Service’s Canyon Overlook and large-vehicle pages state no such rule. What the park says about this lot is that parking is “extremely limited” and to be prepared to try multiple times. The rule is gone from all three pages and from that earlier correction; the advice to arrive early stays.

Our permit and spring pages gave the Park Service’s dates for the seasonal lottery for hikes from 1 March to 31 May: open 1 January, close 20 January, permits on 25 January. They also warned that the Park Service’s table prints no year, that the 2026 spring lottery ran later (13 to 25 February), and, on the spring page, that Recreation.gov had not listed the 2027 lottery.

Recreation.gov’s important dates for Angels Landing now list the spring seasonal lottery as open from 1 January to 20 January 2027, with results on 25 January 2027: the same dates as the Park Service’s table. (The line’s label still reads “Hikes on March 1 — May 31, 2026”; its dates read 2027.) The permit page’s table now has a row for spring 2027, the spring page gives the dates as listed by both, and the winter page no longer calls the next lottery unannounced.

Our Watchman Trail page said the park’s ranger-led Watchman Trail hike, daily at 8:30 a.m., was canceled while the trail is closed. The park calendar shows that hike as a fall series that ends on 17 October 2026, lists every date from 9 October to the end as canceled, and has no Watchman hike scheduled after it. So it will not simply come back when the trail reopens this fall.

The trail is still closed pending repairs. The Park Service’s alert, dated from 31 August, was still listed on 16 October, with no reopening date. The trail page, the October and November page and the itinerary now say both.

Our winter page told anyone hiking Angels Landing in the holiday shuttle week, 26 December to 2 January, that a permit’s time is when you must be at the Grotto, and to check it against the 8:00 a.m. first bus. That holds for a spring permit, which comes with a start window (before 9 a.m., 9 a.m. to noon, or after noon), but not for a winter one. Recreation.gov’s terms for hikes from 1 December to 28 February say permit holders start from the Grotto, shuttle stop 6, at any time. In the holiday week the 8:00 a.m. first bus sets the earliest start, not the permit. The page now says so, in the holiday-week section, the Angels Landing section and the FAQ.

The one guided Narrows hike we listed, Good Trip Adventures’ full day from Springdale, has no date on sale before 1 March 2027, so a reader planning a guided Narrows day this fall or winter had nothing to book. We now list Cedar & Sage Boutique Trekking’s private Narrows hike, which has dates every month from October to February.

It takes your party alone along the Riverside Walk and about two miles up the river to Orderville Canyon, and it includes the cold-water gear — watertight bib waders from October to May, canyoneering boots, neoprene socks and poles — and a charcuterie picnic on the way back down the canyon. It is priced per person by party size, for two adults or more: from October through May, $394 each for two, falling to $212 each for nine or ten. It can be canceled free up to 24 hours before it starts. It has no date on sale from March through May 2027; Good Trip’s day has dates in those months. The operator is on the Park Service’s list of authorized frontcountry hiking guides.

It is on the Narrows page, where it is now the page’s pick and so the one the tours index features, and on the top-down Narrows page, both Angels Landing pages, the itinerary and the winter page. Our October and November page had said that this fall the Narrows was a walk you do yourself; it now carries the guided hike too.

The privacy page said a click on one of our affiliate links takes you to Viator, and named Viator as the only booking company involved. Since 1 October 2026 this site has also carried links to places to stay and rental cars on Booking.com, and those go through CJ (Commission Junction), the affiliate network that runs Booking.com’s program. The page now says what such a click does: it passes through CJ, which records it, on its way to Booking.com, and Booking.com credits us only if you book in that same visit.

It also said that what comes back to us is never “your name, your email, your payment details or what you booked”. The last part was wrong. Viator’s reports show us, for each booking, the date it was made, the date of the trip, which trip it was, its total and our commission. They carry no name, no email and no payment details, and the page now says exactly that.

Its short version said the only personal information we ever hold is an email address you typed in yourself. That left out what comes with the address. MailerLite, which stores our list, records the IP address a signup and its confirmation came from, and when, as its proof that the person asked to join, and, like most mailing services, it can record which of our emails each subscriber opens and which links they click. A message sent to hello@thezionguide.com stays in our mailbox. The page now says all of this.

Four smaller corrections on the same page:

• SMTP2GO delivers our replies when you write to us. The page said it delivered the mailing list’s emails, which MailerLite sends.
• The list of services now also names Google, whose Gmail mailbox receives mail sent to hello@thezionguide.com, and CJ and Booking.com. With them the list is complete.
• The click counter’s description now lists all six things it records, including the time of the click, and says how the country is found: Cloudflare reads it from your connection, and the address itself is never stored.
• The page said the signup form appears on “some of the planning guides”; it appears on most guide and tour pages and some trail pages, and the page now says so.

Our card and our Las Vegas page gave Jupiter Legend’s small-group Zion highlights tour as rated 5.0 from 531 reviews, which is what its reviews read on 13 October. With 535 reviews it now reads 4.9. A rating on a trip we earn from is the one number that must never read higher than it is, so the card and the page now say 4.9 from 535 reviews. It is still the best-reviewed Zion-only day from Las Vegas we list.

Our parking page said an Angels Landing permit does not guarantee trailhead parking, so you may have to park at Zion Lodge or come back later in the day. With no season attached, that read as if a permit holder could drive up the canyon to the Lodge at any time of year. In shuttle season, about March to November, a permit does not open the Scenic Drive: it is closed to private cars other than those of Lodge guests and Canyon Trail Rides customers, and permit holders park where everyone else does and ride the shuttle. Recreation.gov’s advice to be ready to park at the Lodge or another nearby lot and walk to the trailhead, or to come back later in the day, is for the weeks when the shuttles are not running, when parking at the Grotto is limited. The Park Service’s instruction for those weeks is to park on the pavement and, if the lot is full, park farther away and walk back. The page now says so.

The page also said winter is the only time you can park up-canyon. Zion Lodge’s overnight guests park at the Lodge all year, driving up with an access code in shuttle season, so the page now says winter is the only time most visitors can, and links to who else may drive up.

Our cards for Good Trip Adventures’ full day in the Narrows, with hotel pickup in Springdale, printed it from $354, a figure we had rounded down, and said nothing about dates. The listing’s price is $354.32 a person, and it has no date on sale before 1 March 2027. Every card for the trip now says so, our October and November page no longer offers it as a guided day for this fall, and the tours index no longer leads with it until then. The listing also no longer sells Narrows gear as the $60 add-on it was in September: gear is not included, and the tour stops at Zion Outfitter on the way in, where you rent it.

East Zion Adventures’ horseback ride to the slot canyon at Red Hollow is $70.32 a person, not the $70 we printed. Our horseback page said the ride named no weight limit. Its listing sets a strict one of 220 pounds, the same figure as the in-park rides, and the page now says so.

Our canyoneering page said Desert Bound Adventures’ half day at Lamb’s Knoll included water, snacks and the guide’s tip. Its listing includes the gear and instruction and lists water, snacks and gratuity as not included, so the page now tells you to bring them. The listing gives the trip as 4 hours, where we had 3 to 4, the figure its description still uses.

On the Las Vegas page, Adventure Photo Tours’ small-group Zion day, at $292.99, has no date on sale before 5 January 2027. Until then the listing sells only its private tour, which costs more. The trip’s card and the page’s table now say so. East Zion Adventures’ Elkheart Canyon trip, on the canyoneering and UTV pages, now carries a line that it has no date on sale from November through February.

Six more trips’ cards now say when they can be booked. The guided e-bike ride up the Scenic Drive has dates on sale through 31 December 2026 and none in 2027 yet. East Zion Adventures’ horseback ride has none from January through May 2027, and only a few after that. MARVIT Tours’ Zion-and-Bryce day from Las Vegas has none from February through September 2027, and the Las Vegas page’s table says so too. Zion Helicopters’ three flights have none in February 2027 and only three in January.

Our car page put Las Vegas about two and a half hours from Zion, and the Las Vegas rental car listing said the same. Two OpenStreetMap-based car routers, Valhalla and OSRM, give more: from the rental car center at Harry Reid International Airport, about 168 miles, 2 hours 44 minutes by Valhalla and 3 hours 18 minutes by OSRM, with no stops. Zion Lodge’s own FAQ says the drive takes about two and a half hours, and asks you to plan on three and a half or more with the hour lost to the time zone. The car page now says about three hours, the figure the Las Vegas tours page gives, and prints the routers’ range beside the Lodge’s figure.

For St George the routers and the Lodge disagree. The car page and the St George rental car listing put its airport about an hour from Springdale, and the same two routers agree: 58 minutes by Valhalla and 1 hour 11 minutes by OSRM, both 47 miles from the airport’s access road. Zion Lodge’s FAQ says an hour and a half. Both now say an hour to an hour and a half, and the car page prints the routers’ times beside the Lodge’s. Measured the same way at both ends, the extra drive over flying into St George is an hour and three-quarters to just over two hours, or an hour on the Lodge’s own figures.

The Las Vegas tours page’s paragraph on driving yourself gave the $35 car fee without the $100 that each non-US resident aged 16 and over pays on top. It now gives both.

Our canyoneering page listed the minimum age for ROAM’s 4-hour Ride and Rappel trip as not stated. ROAM’s own site states it: 4 and up, the same as its 2.5-hour and full-day trips.

The page also priced East Zion Adventures only from its Viator listings, and so left out two of its canyons that are not on Viator, which its own site lists from $89 for Hidden Creek and $149 for Rock Drop. So the lowest price on the page was not Desert Bound Adventures’ $125 half day, as it said, but East Zion Adventures’ Hidden Creek. The page now prices both canyons.

The page also gave 175 feet as the highest rappel on offer. Red Desert Adventure’s pages put its High Adventure rappels at up to 180 feet and its two Oak Creek canyons, which end on a via ferrata, at up to 180 and 200 feet, and the page now says so, along with the places where Red Desert’s own pages give different rappel counts and heights for the same trip.

The page also said ROAM names its canyons, as East Zion Adventures does. ROAM’s own trip pages give the area, the number of rappels and their heights, but not the canyon, and on their strength we changed the page to count four of the six outfitters that leave the canyon unnamed. That went too far: ROAM’s Viator listings, the ones we link, do name their canyons. A second correction the same day, on ROAM’s canyon names, sets out what each listing says, and the page now gives both sources and counts three.

Our Subway and slot canyon pages also said five outfitters were compared on the canyoneering page. There are six.

Our canyoneering page said East Zion Adventures was the only outfitter on it to print a weight limit, of 250 pounds. ROAM prints one as well: its canyoneering page sets a weight limit of 250 pounds for canyoneering in Zion, Kanab and Orderville, and its East Zion Via Ferrata allows 265. The page now names both outfitters’ limits, and says the other four do not print one.

Another correction of 13 October changed our canyoneering page to say that ROAM gives the area and the rappels but not the canyon, and to count four of the six outfitters that do not name the canyon in advance. That is true of ROAM’s own site, and false for the trips we link: its Viator listings name the canyons. The descriptions of the 2.5- and 4-hour listings name Coal Hollow Slot Canyon; their itineraries name Ladder Canyon, right next to Sugar Knoll; and the 2.5-hour trip rappels the bottom half of Ladder Canyon. The full day goes to Upper and Lower Red Cave and Ladder Canyon.

The page now gives both sources, prints those names in its ROAM section, and counts three outfitters that leave the canyon to the guide: Zion Adventure Company, Zion Guru and Red Desert Adventure. That other correction, which said ROAM does not name its canyons, now says it went too far.

The page also now says when the east-side canyons are on sale. On Viator, East Zion Adventures’ Elkheart and Stone Hollow have no date from November 2026 through February 2027, and Coral Sands none from December through February; ROAM’s three trips and Desert Bound Adventures’ half day have dates in every month.

The Park Service closed Taylor Creek Trail because of flooding on 11 October. By the evening of 13 October the closure was gone from its alerts, and its Current Conditions page posted no closure anywhere in Kolob Canyons. Our Kolob Canyons page now says the trail is open.

Our Las Vegas tours page called the Zion-and-Bryce days that stop 30 to 45 minutes in Zion “big-bus” days. Those days cross the park through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel to a photo stop at Checkerboard Mesa, and since 7 June 2026 the Park Service has barred any vehicle over 11 ft 4 in tall, 7 ft 10 in wide, 35 ft 9 in long or 50,000 lb from that whole stretch of highway, which a full-size motorcoach exceeds. Neither operator calls its vehicle a coach: Canyon Tours describes a private luxury tour vehicle, and Golden Bus Tours an air-conditioned bus, or a minivan depending on the number booked. The page now names the operators instead.

Golden Bus Tours’ Zion-and-Bryce day, the source of the 45-minute figure, was sold out on 13 October 2026 with no new schedule posted, and its two pages for the day list different stops: 45 minutes in Zion and 25 at Checkerboard Mesa on one, 30 minutes at the Visitor Center and 15 at Checkerboard Mesa on the other. The page now prints both, and leads with Canyon Tours’ 30 minutes at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center.

Our Zion Lodge and where-to-stay pages said the Lodge takes bookings 12 months ahead. That is what its policies page and its lodging overview say. Its FAQ page says 13 months: on the first of each month it opens bookings for the same month of the following year, so on 1 March 2027 reservations open through 31 March 2028. Both of our pages now print both figures. The policies page and the FAQ agree that there is no waitlist.

Our Zion Lodge page listed Wi-Fi among the historic cabins’ amenities, from the Lodge’s lodging page, which says the cabins come with it. The Lodge’s FAQ page says the cabins have no TV, Wi-Fi or kitchen. The page now prints both and suggests asking before booking a cabin if you need to be online in the room.

Our Narrows page said spring snowmelt “routinely” pushes the Virgin River over 150 cubic feet per second and closes the hike. The Park Service’s record, which runs from 2012, shows a snowmelt closure in eight of those fifteen springs, and the river open most of the time in the other seven, including 2025 and 2026. The page now gives the count, and our new spring page sets out each closure’s dates.

Our Narrows page said that in winter the river “sits in the upper thirties”. The Park Service’s figure for average winter water temperature is a range, 38 to 45°F (3 to 7°C), most of which is in the forties. Its advice is that a neoprene wetsuit or drysuit with warm layers may be needed, and its seasons page says a winter hiker will likely need a drysuit. The page now gives the Park Service’s range, and our new winter page sets out what the two Springdale outfitters recommend for December to February.

On the afternoon of 11 October the Park Service posted that Taylor Creek Trail is temporarily closed because of flooding, with no end date. Our Kolob Canyons page now says so above its trail notes.

On 30 September the Park Service closed the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway to through traffic from Canyon Junction to the East Entrance after a rockfall. UDOT posted on 9 October at 12:01 p.m. that the Park Service had opened the closed portion of the highway to through traffic, and the closure no longer appears in the Park Service’s alert feed. UDOT asks drivers to take care near the rockfall scene, where there may be gravel and uneven surfaces, and to watch for vehicles and pedestrians. The Park Service’s large-vehicle alert for the road is unchanged.

The road was shut for nine days. Our pages now describe the closure in the past tense, keep the detours for the next time it closes, and carry UDOT’s 8 October construction update: paving is now on the west side of the tunnel, State Route 9 mileposts 38 to 40, not east of it as we reported on 4 October.

Our pages said the rockfall of 30 September closed the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway until 9 October, and the Canyon Overlook page said the trail itself was closed for nine days. The Park Service’s release of 9 October gives the fuller account. The park reopened the 7.5 miles from the East Entrance to Great Arch Overlook on 6 October, for scenic driving and day use, while crews cleared the rock. Canyon Overlook and the other east-side trailheads could be reached from the East Entrance from then, three days before through traffic resumed on the 9th.

The release also says the rock formation that fell damaged the roadway, and that the park has laid gravel there for now and will repave the road in the near future. The pages now say both, and give the Park Service’s own account of the reopening, which they had carried until now from UDOT’s post and the alert feed.

The Park Service has closed the Angels Landing Trail from Monday 5 to Thursday 8 October 2026: “Angels Landing Trail is temporarily closed for scheduled maintenance October 5 through October 8. Permits are not available for these dates.” Our pages said the day-before lottery runs every day; for those four days it issues nothing. The hike, permit and October pages now say so.

Our Zion and Bryce page said UDOT was paving State Route 9 “between the south and east gates”. UDOT’s 1 October update places the paving at mileposts 40 to 42, east of the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel, Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., through 22 October, with one-way traffic and waits of up to 15 minutes. The page now says east of the tunnel. The highway itself is still closed to through traffic after the rockfall of 30 September.

Our wheelchair page gave the shuttle’s wheelchair limits as 600 pounds combined and a chair no larger than 45 inches long or 25 inches wide, on a lift. The Park Service’s shuttle page, updated on 4 October, now says the shuttle has a ramp, with a combined weight limit of 1,000 pounds and a chair no larger than 48 inches long or 32 inches wide. The page now gives the new figures.

On 28 September we said the Watchman Trail was open again. That day the Park Service’s closure alert was gone from its list and the ranger-led Watchman hike was back on the park’s schedule.

Both have since been reversed. On 2 October the park lists “Watchman Trail Closed: The Watchman Trail is closed pending repairs”, under an alert dated from 31 August, and its calendar shows the ranger-led Watchman Trail hike as canceled. The trail page, the itinerary, the fall page and the car-free page now say it is closed. We will say when it reopens.

On 28 September we said the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel was open day and night. On 30 September the Park Service posted “Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway closed from Canyon Junction to East Entrance”: “The Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway is partially closed. There will be no through traffic until further notice. Zion Canyon Scenic Drive remains open to shuttles and lodge guests.” UDOT gives the cause as a rockfall, says the highway is closed in both directions, and on 1 October that it remains closed to through traffic until further notice. Neither has given a reopening date. Our pages carried the open road until 2 October.

Zion Canyon is not affected. What the closure cuts is the drive between the canyon and the east side: from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, Kanab is now 86 miles and about 2 hours by Hurricane, Hildale and Fredonia, and Bryce Canyon 157 miles and about 3 hours 35 minutes by I-15 and Highway 20, by OpenStreetMap’s car router; the Park Service puts the Highway 20 route to Bryce at roughly 150 miles and 2.5 hours. Neither notice says whether Canyon Overlook or the other trailheads on the closed stretch can be reached from the East Entrance.

The tunnel page now carries the closure, UDOT’s alternative routes and the drive times, and the other pages say the road is closed and point to it. The size limits still apply when it reopens. We will say when it does.

The Park Service listed the Watchman Trail as closed pending repairs from 1 September 2026. On 28 September the closure alert was gone from the park’s alerts, and the park’s own ranger-led Watchman Trail hike — canceled from 13 to 27 September — was back on the schedule daily from 28 September to 17 October, at 8:30 a.m. from the Visitor Center.

The trail page, the itinerary and the fall page now say it is open.

On 21 September we told you the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel would close every night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. until 30 September. On 24 September UDOT postponed the last block of those closures, the nights of 28 and 29 September, indefinitely, “due to material delays”. Our pages still carried the old dates until 28 September.

As of 28 September the tunnel is open around the clock to vehicles within the size limits. UDOT says it will post an updated schedule when it has one, and its construction inside the park continues Monday to Thursday, day and night, with delays. The tunnel page now carries the current state, and the other pages point to it rather than repeating dates.

Our permit page said the park does not publish lottery odds and that anyone quoting a percentage was guessing. The park published them in April 2024.

Across the first two years, the overall odds in both the seasonal and the day-before lottery averaged about 50%, ranging from 8% in the day-before lottery on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend to 100% on some midweek days. Weekends and holidays are significantly harder, and the park says plainly that you are more likely to get a permit mid-week.

The page now carries the figures, their date, and what to do with them: rank weekday dates among your seven seasonal choices, and enter the day-before lottery every day of your stay.

Our fee pages got the $100 nonresident fee right and left out the parts that decide what a family actually pays.

Any valid annual pass covers the whole car. Under the Park Service’s rules, every valid America the Beautiful or park annual pass covers the entrance and nonresident fees for the pass holder and the passengers in a private vehicle. A car driven by a US resident with an annual pass pays no $100 for the foreign visitors in it. Where the fee is per person, as it is on foot, a pass covers the holder and three more adults.

Children 15 and under pay neither fee. Our shuttle page priced a family of four at $35 plus $400; with two children under 16 it is $35 plus $200. The changelog entry below from 19 September now says four adults, which is what its $435 assumed.

The $70 Zion annual pass is for US citizens and residents only. The fee page did not say so, so a non-resident could read “unless they hold an annual pass” as the $70 one. The only pass a non-resident can buy is the $250 Non-Resident Annual Pass.

Also on the fee page: the Angels Landing permit cost ($6 plus $3 a head), which it said three times it would not state, and the full list of 2026 fee-free days — ten, not eight, with the next two on 27 October and 11 November, for US residents only.

We rated Canyon Overlook easy. The Park Service rates it moderate: the trail climbs sandstone steps from the start, has rock stairs with steps up to 18 inches, and runs beside long drop-offs that are mostly fenced. It is still one mile, but the trail finder now files it where the park does.

We also added a rule for the trailhead: that you must turn right to enter the parking area just east of the tunnel, and turn right to leave it. The Park Service states no such rule, and a correction of 16 October took it off our pages again.

Our flood page said six of the last eleven springs had a snowmelt closure of the Narrows and three had none. The Park Service’s table covers 2016 to 2026: six closures, and five years marked “open most of the time” — 2018, 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026.

We had also written those years as simply “Open”. The park’s wording is “open most of the time”, because its table only marks a closure where the Virgin River stayed above 150 cubic feet per second most of the time. The page now uses the park’s wording.

The Narrows top-down and the Subway each showed 1,300 feet of elevation gain. Neither figure came from the Park Service or Recreation.gov, and on the top-down it was worse than unsourced: the route runs downhill from Chamberlain’s Ranch, so the facts panel was presenting a descent as a climb. Both are removed, and the top-down now reads as what it is, 16 miles one way.

We said the Park Service publishes no list of authorized shuttle companies. It does, linked from its Angels Landing permit page. Two companies on it with transport authorizations serve Chamberlain’s Ranch: Zion Adventure Company, which runs daily at 6:15 and 9:45 a.m. for $60 a person, and Red Rock Shuttle & Tours.

We said the Subway’s daily quota split was unpublished. Recreation.gov issues 75 percent of each day’s Left Fork spots through the seasonal lottery and 25 percent through the daily lottery two days out.

Six of our pages told you a fact did not exist when it did. Each one removed the answer the page was for.

• Springdale parking rates. The town publishes them: $25 a day in Zone A near the entrance, $20 in Zone B, $15 on Lion Boulevard, $30 for oversized vehicles, $20 at the Bit and Spur lot. And the Park Service does say when the park lots fill: often by 9 a.m. in summer.
• The SunTran timetable. It is published as text, by Greater Zion, with every departure. We also said no bus runs on Sundays; the Zion White Bison shuttle runs between Virgin and Springdale on Sundays and holidays, seven times a day, and the service runs through the winter.
• The Zion Corridor Park & Ride in Virgin, open since March 2026 for large vehicles, was missing from every car, parking and tunnel page.
• Kolob Canyons trail distances. They are on the Park Service’s trail pages: Timber Creek Overlook 0.6 miles each way, Taylor Creek 2.6, Kolob Arch 14 miles round trip.
• The Lower Emerald Pool Trail survey and the loaner all-terrain wheelchair’s rules (first come, first served, no reservations) are both on the Park Service’s accessibility pages.
• Campground rates and site counts. Recreation.gov lists them: Watchman 184 sites at $35 to $45 (group sites $50 to $130), South 124 at $35, Lava Point 6 at $25.

UDOT is closing the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel to all traffic from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the nights of Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September and Monday 28 to Tuesday 29 September 2026, to pull cable through the tunnel. It is a full road closure: cars are turned around at Canyon Junction on the west side and about 50 feet before the tunnel’s east portal. The Park Service carries the same closure in its alerts.

If you are driving in from Bryce Canyon or Kanab in the evening, reach the tunnel before 9 p.m. or take one of the routes around the park.

Our mistake. Four of our pages said Highway 9 through the tunnel “stays open to cars year-round” or “never closes”. What they meant was that it has no shuttle restriction. The Park Service also closes it for snow, ice, rockfall or congestion, and all four pages now say so.

This page told you to walk into an outfitter the afternoon before because “none of them are sold through a booking platform, so there is nothing to reserve online.” That was wrong, and it was wrong in the direction that costs you the hike.

Zion Adventures books its Narrows packages through FareHarbor and recommends reserving dry bibs and dry suits from 1 October to the middle of May. Zion Outfitter sells its packages straight off its own site and states that sizes are guaranteed to reserved customers before 10 a.m., first-come otherwise. Turning up at 7 a.m. in July with nothing booked is exactly how you find the boot sizes gone.

The price range was wrong at the top end too. We said $30 to $60 “depending on whether you need the dry suit”; the dry suit package is $79. Read off both shops’ own pages today, the packages run about $31 to $35 for footwear, $59 for a dry bib, and $79 for a full dry suit, per person per day.

Our note on the full-day guided Narrows trip said it included Narrows gear. It does not. The listing prices gear as an add-on at $60 per person, and lunch is bring-your-own.

On a $354 trip that is a real difference, and it is the sort of thing you discover at the outfitter rather than at checkout.

We also corrected the operating companies on several listings after checking each against its own “Supplied by” line.

Our fee table listed the standard fees and stopped there, which is fine if you live in the United States and badly wrong if you do not.

Every non-US resident aged 16 and over pays a $100 nonresident fee on top of the standard entrance fee, unless they are admitted on an Annual or America the Beautiful pass. Four adults arriving in one car budget $35 from most pages on the internet and are charged $435 at the gate.

The two passes we listed as the way out of it are sold only to US citizens and residents — both the $70 Zion Annual Pass and the $80 America the Beautiful pass. The one a non-resident can buy is the $250 Non-Resident Annual Pass, which waives the $100 and therefore pays for itself from three people upwards.

All four figures are now on the page, with the residency restriction stated against each.

We said North Fork Road was fine in a normal car when dry. The Park Service describes the East Rim trailheads as reachable only by high-clearance or four-wheel-drive dirt roads, often impassable in winter and spring and after rain.

That is a decision you make at the rental counter, not at the trailhead, so it is corrected on the car page as well as the trail page. Parts of the route cross private land where a stuck vehicle is a tow at your expense, and there is no shuttle coming to get you.

The route distance and climb were also wrong, and are now 6.8 miles and 300 feet.

Two corrections from the same morning of checking.

We told you the dates were not published. Our shuttle page said “anyone giving you exact start and end dates for a season that has not been announced is guessing” and handed you “March through November.” The park has a full 2026 table up, and it is now on the page — including the one that catches people: the shuttle runs again from 26 December to 2 January and the Scenic Drive closes to cars for that week, so Christmas week is the one winter week you cannot drive the canyon. We have also added the park’s own warning that missing the last bus can mean a nine-mile walk back to the Visitor Center.

We said oversized vehicles still had “full access” through the South Entrance. They do not. A vehicle over the tunnel limits is admitted at the South Entrance only for the large-vehicle lot by the Visitor Center if there is room, a Zion Lodge or campground reservation, or the Scenic Drive in the shuttle off-season — and is not permitted past Canyon Junction. Anyone routing a 38-foot motorhome on our sentence would have arrived expecting the park and found a parking space.

We had this wrong, and it is the kind of wrong that ends a day at the tunnel mouth. Until now these pages described the old paid escort system for oversized vehicles.

Since 7 June 2026 there is no escort. The Park Service does not permit vehicles over 35 ft 9 in long, 7 ft 10 in wide, 11 ft 4 in tall, or 50,000 lb on Highway 9 between Canyon Junction and the East Entrance. Combined vehicles cannot exceed 26 ft hitch to rear axle, or 50 ft overall. There is nothing to book and no posted hour that lets you through.

If your vehicle is over any of those limits, use the South Entrance, or take one of the routes around the park and add 10 to 45 minutes. Canyon Overlook sits on the restricted stretch, so that trailhead cannot be reached in anything that size.

The Park Service has listed the Watchman Trail as closed pending repairs since 1 September 2026. It has not given a reopening date.

We missed it. Our Watchman page carried a check date of 18 September and still called it the hike to do on the evening you arrive, the home page featured it, and the car-free guide listed it among the Zion Canyon hikes you can reach without a vehicle. All of that was wrong for three weeks.

The trail page now opens with the closure, the trail finder marks it closed, and it is off the home page and the car-free list until the park reopens it.

The same check turned up a second error. We described the trail as having no drop-offs and no exposure. The Park Service describes the terrain as sandy, rocky and uneven, with several moderate drop-offs, and that is what the page now says for when it reopens.