Zion in spring 2027: March to May, the dates that change

Spring at Zion turns on three questions: whether the shuttle is running yet, whether the river is low enough for the Narrows, and how many other people picked the same week. The shuttle’s first day for 2027 is not posted; from 2023 to 2026 it fell between 2 and 11 March. Snowmelt closed the Narrows for part of the spring in eight of the last fifteen years. And March, the Park Service says, brings almost three times February’s visitors. Every date below was checked on 12 October 2026; the weeks before March are on the winter page.

The dates, in order

Is the shuttle running in March?

Not on a date anyone can plan around yet. The Park Service’s 2026–27 schedule runs out on 2 January 2027, and its shuttle page says that in most years the buses run daily from March through November. Each year it posts the spring start in a news release, and the last four came out anywhere from about four weeks to one day before the first bus:

Before the first bus, you drive. Until the shuttle starts, the winter rules hold: the Scenic Drive is open to private cars, you park at the trailheads, and the Park Service closes the road for the day once its parking is full. Its instruction to Angels Landing hikers covers these weeks too: in the few weeks of winter and spring with no shuttle, drive to the trailhead, park on the pavement, and if the lot is full, park farther away and walk back. Where to park and what fills first is on the winter page.

Once it runs, the Scenic Drive is shuttle-only, and that includes before the first bus of the day and after the last. The spring hours in 2026, from 7 March to 16 May:

From 17 May 2026 the last bus up left at 7:00 p.m. and the last one out of the Temple of Sinawava at 8:15 p.m. The 2027 times come with the 2027 release. The shuttle is free and needs no ticket, buses come about every 5 to 10 minutes in the canyon and every 10 to 15 in town, and the ride from the Visitor Center to the Temple of Sinawava takes about 45 minutes. The rest of the year is on the shuttle page.

• Park early, or park in town. From early February to late November, the Park Service warns, parking often fills by early or mid-morning. The Visitor Center lot has over 350 spaces; when it is full, park in Springdale and ride the town shuttle to the pedestrian entrance. The lots and Springdale’s rates are on the parking page.
• The line is the wait. At busy times, the Park Service says, the wait for a shuttle can be longer than an hour. On a spring weekend be at the Visitor Center for the first bus.
• Do not wait for the last bus. If it is full, or you miss it, the walk back to the Visitor Center can be nine miles.
• Lodge guests drive to the Lodge. An overnight reservation at Zion Lodge comes with an access code to drive the Scenic Drive to the Lodge’s guest parking, and no further. Every other trailhead is the shuttle or your feet.
• A bike is the other way up. Bicycles may ride the Scenic Drive when cars may not, and must pull over for the buses; e-bikes and the rentals are on the biking page.

Angels Landing: the spring lottery

Every hiker on the chains beyond Scout Lookout needs a permit, every day of the year. The seasonal lottery for hikes from 1 March to 31 May, on the Park Service’s permit page, opens at 8 a.m. Mountain Time on 1 January, closes at 11:59 p.m. MT on 20 January, and issues permits on 25 January. That table prints no year. The same January dates ran in 2024, while in 2026 the spring lottery ran later, from 13 to 25 February, with permits on the 26th. Recreation.gov, where you apply, lists the 2027 spring lottery on the January dates: open 1 to 20 January 2027, results on the 25th.

The lottery itself: $6 an application, covering up to six people, and $3 a person if you win. You pick and rank up to seven days and times. A seasonal permit can be canceled up to two days before for the $3 a person back, and it then rolls into the day-before lottery, which runs every day: enter between 12:01 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mountain Time for the next day’s hike, with results after 4 p.m. A permit cannot be moved to another date. The rules and the odds in full are on the permit page.

What spring changes:

• Weekdays are your odds. The Park Service’s review of the first two years put the average at about 50% across both lotteries, from 8% in the day-before lottery on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend to 100% on some midweek days. Rank weekdays among your seven choices.
• Wet rock ends the hike at Scout Lookout. The Park Service’s rule is not to go up when the ground is wet or icy, because most accidents on the chains happen in wet conditions, and not to keep climbing when storm clouds come in. Thunderstorms, it says, come more often in the afternoon, and the climate chart counts about one thunderstorm day in April and four in May. A permit for a wet day is a permit for Scout Lookout.
• The time on your permit is when you must be at the Grotto, shuttle stop 6. In shuttle season, leave time for the line at the Visitor Center and the ride; before the shuttle starts, you drive to the trailhead. Most hikers take around four hours for the 5.4-mile round trip, by the Park Service’s count. The hike itself is on the Angels Landing page.

The Narrows in spring: snowmelt and the 150 CFS line

The river hike runs on two rules all year: it closes when the flow is over 150 cubic feet per second, and it closes whenever the National Weather Service issues a Flash Flood Warning, for at least two hours after it lifts. The Park Service’s note on the season is that winter and early spring “commonly bring high water levels and cold water,” and that the Narrows closes in spring when snowmelt raises the river over 150 CFS.

The record. The Park Service lists the springs since 2012 when snowmelt kept the Virgin River over 150 CFS most of the time:

In 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026 it was open most of the time. Three things follow from it.

• Closures start in April. Six of the eight began between 3 and 17 April. Only 2017’s began in March, on the 11th.
• Late May is the better bet. After 22 May the river was under the line in every one of those years but 2019 and 2023, when it stayed high into the middle of June.
• The winter decides it. The Park Service ties the closures to the winter’s snow: as it melts it raises the river, and in wet years, its seasons page says, the Narrows is likely to be closed. Read the flow gauge in the days before you go; the Narrows page has it, with the other two checks for the morning itself.

The water is cold. The Park Service puts the average in spring and fall at 41 to 53°F (5 to 12°C), and says that in early spring neoprene socks, pants, bib overalls or a wetsuit may be necessary. Zion Outfitter’s own chart runs from 40 to 45°F in March to 50 to 55°F in May. The Park Service calls hypothermia a greater hazard in narrow canyons, because immersion in water is the quickest way to cool the body: no cotton, and eat before you are chilled.

Renting for it. Both Springdale outfitters rent cold-water gear through the spring, and they read the season a little differently:

Zion Adventures’ packages all include neoprene socks, water shoes and a walking stick, it recommends reserving dry bibs and dry suits from 1 October to mid-May, and it adds sales tax and fees of about 14% at checkout; its dry-bib package is linked below. Zion Outfitter’s packages come with canyoneering boots, neoprene socks and a wooden stick; it guarantees sizes to reserved customers who pick up before 10 a.m., and takes no reservations on the holiday weekends its calendar marks. Zion Outfitter lets you pick gear up the evening before; Zion Adventures fits your boots and gives its orientation then, but does not promise the gear itself until the morning.

Two hikes that need more than a gauge. The top-down through-hike from Chamberlain’s Ranch is often out of reach in spring, and the top-down page says why. The Subway’s permits for April, May and June go in a lottery from 1 to 25 February, with a daily lottery two days ahead; the Subway page has the calendar.

Weather

From the Park Service’s climate chart for Zion:

Spring is when the trees leaf out and the earliest wildflowers bloom. Days warm and nights can still be cold: the Park Service puts the daily swing at 32°F or more, so pack for both ends of it. Depending on the winter’s snow, it adds, higher parts of the park may still be out of reach without winter gear in March and April. Zion Outfitter’s chart gives lower figures, from a 56°F high and a 30°F low in March to 69°F and 43°F in May; the table above is the Park Service’s.

Crowds: spring break, Easter and Memorial Day

From early February to late November, the Park Service says, Zion can be very busy, with a wait possible at the entrance stations and parking full by early or mid-morning. In March the numbers jump.

• March is spring break. The Park Service calls March spring break for many people across the country and counts almost three times as many visitors in Zion Canyon as in February.
• Easter is on 28 March in 2027. The Park Service lists Easter week among Zion’s most popular, and notes that it usually falls in April. In 2027 it lands in March, on top of spring break.
• Memorial Day weekend runs from Saturday 29 May to Monday 31 May 2027. With the Fourth of July and Labor Day it is one of the three most visited weekends of the year, by the Park Service’s count, and it is when the day-before Angels Landing lottery had its lowest odds in the permit’s first two years.
• Weekdays are quieter. The park is less busy on weekdays than at weekends, and early morning and late in the day beat the middle of it.
• Fee-free days. Memorial Day, 25 May 2026, was one of the Park Service’s fee-free days in 2026, for US citizens and residents only. Its 2027 list was not out on 12 October 2026.

Roads, campgrounds and what opens

• Kolob Terrace Road usually closes for several months from fall to spring because of snow, the Park Service says. The closure starts at Maloney Hill, about a mile east (signed north) of the Hop Valley Trailhead. The Park Service gives no reopening date; it posts closures on its conditions page. The Lava Point road that branches off it is typically closed from fall into spring.
• Lava Point Campground, six primitive sites at 7,890 feet, is typically open from May through September as the weather allows, and books two weeks ahead. In 2024 the Park Service expected it to open in late May.
• Kolob Canyons Road is open most of the year and closes often in winter. See Kolob Canyons.
• The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway reopened on 9 October 2026 after the rockfall closure of 30 September. The Park Service works to keep it open all year, and sometimes closes it for snow, ice, rockfall or traffic. UDOT’s fiber-optic work inside the park runs Monday to Thursday, except holidays, with traffic delays, and UDOT expects to finish it in spring 2027. The vehicle size limits are on the tunnel page.
• Campgrounds. South Campground’s season, by Recreation.gov, runs from early March to the end of October, and it books only 14 days ahead. Recreation.gov also warns that April and May bring tent caterpillars, which drop from the trees onto tents and tables. Watchman is open all year and books six months ahead, so the dates for a spring trip open between September and November. From mid-March both are full almost every night. See camping in Zion.
• The Human History Museum, closed since the end of November, usually opens in spring, the Park Service says, for limited hours.
• Still closed on 12 October 2026: the Watchman Trail, pending repairs, with no reopening date on the Park Service’s alert (see the Watchman page); and Hidden Canyon, closed since a large rockfall on the East Rim Trail, which also leaves Observation Point reachable only from the east (see the Observation Point page).

Zion Lodge in spring

The Lodge, the only beds and the only food inside the park, is open all year, and once the shuttle starts, its overnight guests may still drive the Scenic Drive: to the Lodge’s guest parking and no further, with the access code that comes with a reservation. A guest who booked through Booking.com and has no code should ask the Lodge on (435) 772–7700 before arriving. Rooms against cabins, and how far ahead it books, are on the Lodge page.

What it costs to get in

The fees are the same all year: $35 a car for seven days, $30 a motorcycle, $20 a person on foot or by bike, and children 15 and under free. Every non-US resident aged 16 and over also pays a $100 nonresident fee, unless admitted with an annual or America the Beautiful pass, which covers everyone in the pass holder’s car. Card is preferred at the gate and cash is accepted. Fee-free days do not waive the $100. The passes, and the arithmetic for a carful of foreign visitors, are on the fee page.

A spring plan

The three days on the itinerary page work in spring with four changes:

• Enter the January lottery, ranking weekdays, then the day-before lottery every day you are here. Keep a dry day for the chains.
• Hold the Narrows loosely. Plan it for the warmest part of the day, in a dry bib, with a stop at the outfitter the evening before, and keep a second hike ready for the morning the gauge reads over 150. Late May has the best record.
• Stay off Easter week and Memorial Day weekend if the dates are yours to choose, and be on the first bus on any weekend.
• For the first ten days of March, plan both ways: the drive if the shuttle has not started, the bus if it has.

Spring weekends in Springdale book out months ahead, and a room within walking distance of the pedestrian entrance, or beside a town shuttle stop, saves the parking hunt every morning; how far each hotel is on foot is on the Springdale hotels page. Zion Lodge on Booking.com, Booking.com’s Springdale list and everything bookable at Zion are below.