Not one of these tours enters Zion National Park. The Park Service’s rule is flat: “ATVs, OHVs, and other off-road vehicles are not permitted in Zion National Park. Any vehicle off-road travel in Zion National Park is illegal.” So every UTV, ATV and jeep tour sold as “Zion” runs on the land around it — mostly the country east of the park near Mount Carmel and Orderville, plus Kanab to the southeast and one outfit in Virgin to the west. That is also why they need no permit and no shuttle.
The question that actually separates them is what happens when the engine stops.
Four kinds of ride
| What you get | Who drives | Tours |
|---|---|---|
| A ride to a slot canyon, then a short walk in. No ropes | The guide | ROAM’s UTV slot canyon trip. East Zion Adventures’ Red Rock Slot Canyon and Crimson Canyon tours. All three are linked below |
| A ride, then real rappels | The guide | ROAM’s Ride + Rappel trips. East Zion Adventures’ Elkheart Canyon. Compared on the canyoneering page |
| You drive the UTV, following a guide | You | East Zion Adventures’ Diana’s Throne UTV Adventure, linked below. Zion Ponderosa’s Zion Pines Guided UTV Tour |
| A jeep ride to a viewpoint, often at sunset or after dark | The guide | East Zion Adventures’ East Rim, Zion Sunset, Parunuweap and stargazing tours. Zion Helicopters’ West Temple jeep ride from Virgin |
The slot canyon rides
ROAM’s UTV slot canyon trip is $104 for two hours on the listing below. ROAM’s own site describes it as a UTV ride to the mouths of two slot canyons, Upper Red Cave and Lower Red Cave, and about a quarter of a mile of walking in all — one of the easiest ways into a slot for anyone who cannot manage a long hike. The guides drive. The booking link’s web address still says “rappelling”; the trip has no rappel.
East Zion Adventures’ Red Rock Slot Canyon tour takes two hours: a UTV ride to the mouths of two privately accessed slot canyons, “far from any paved roads”, then a walk into both, with no climbing. Its listing calls it a mild tour for families with little ones. Its Crimson Canyon Hike & UTV Adventure, also two hours, rides from Orderville to the mouth of Crimson Canyon, and the guide hikes in with you and helps you over boulders 8 to 10 feet tall; the listing calls it strenuous. Both are linked below, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before: Red Rock at $129 an adult and $118 a child aged 2 to 11, Crimson Canyon at $129.91 an adult and $118 a child aged 4 to 17.
Worth knowing before you book two of them. ROAM labels its two canyons Upper Red Cave “(Crimson)” and Lower Red Cave “(Red Rock)” — the same names East Zion Adventures gives its two tours. Pick one outfitter for the Red Cave canyons and spend the second half-day on something else.
Driving it yourself
Diana’s Throne (East Zion Adventures, linked below) is the one where you take the wheel: 30 minutes of instruction, an hour of driving a Can-Am Maverick behind the guide, and 30 minutes at two viewpoints facing Zion’s cliffs. Everyone wears a helmet with a built-in radio, so the guide talks you through the driving from the lead vehicle. It is $149 a driver, who must be 21 with ID, and $89 a passenger from age 4, and it meets at the Thunderbird Lodge in Mount Carmel. Know three things before you book it:
- A $1,000 damage deposit, refundable, is taken on arrival.
- Checkout adds trip protection for 15% more unless you decline it, then about 14% in tax and fees.
- Its terms are strict: nothing back inside 48 hours, half kept from 30 days out, and 10% kept even before that. The protection, if you keep it, lets you cancel or reschedule up to 12 hours before for the ticket price, less the protection and processing fees.
Dates are on sale through December 2026, with only one in 2027 so far. Zion Ponderosa runs a second drive-yourself ride, the two-hour Zion Pines Guided UTV Tour.
Utah’s rules change the moment there is no guide. From Utah’s Division of Outdoor Recreation:
- Every operator aged 18 or over needs the free online Adult OHV Education certificate to drive an OHV on public land, roads or trails. The course takes under 30 minutes and is valid for life. It does not apply on a guided tour, which is why Diana’s Throne needs nothing from you.
- You may not rent an OHV unless the operator has completed the course, and non-resident visitors are told to complete it before riding in Utah.
- Under 18 needs a youth OHV education certificate, and under 16 must be under direct adult supervision, within 300 feet. Utah does not accept other states’ courses.
- Helmets are required for operators and passengers under 18 on Type I ATVs and motorcycles.
Jeep rides, sunsets and stars
East Zion Adventures runs its jeep tours from the east side, all guided and all open to ages 2 and up:
| Tour | Length | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| East Rim Jeep Tour | 1 hour | Through pine forest to a view of Checkerboard Mesa, then down to Jolley Gulch at the edge of the park |
| Zion Sunset Jeep Tour | 1.5 hours | Over boulders to the top of Pine Knoll, a 360-degree view, and the sun setting behind Zion’s cliffs |
| Parunuweap Canyon Jeep Tour | 2 hours | Views of Mineral Gulch, Parunuweap Canyon and Elephant Gap, with the area’s Native American and pioneer history |
| Sunset, S’mores & Stargazing | 2.5 hours | A jeep to a private viewpoint for sunset, then a fire and a guided look at the night sky |
| High Country Stargazing & Jeep Ride | 1.5 hours | A private, high-elevation hilltop for stargazing |
On the Springdale side, Zion Helicopters runs a one-hour jeep ride from its base at 3050 East UT-9 in Virgin, up its own private road about 500 feet to a viewpoint over the Virgin River basin facing the West Temple, with a 20-minute stop, for $49. It is the only ride on this page on the Springdale side of the park.
Kanab’s Peekaboo is a different trip
Peekaboo Slot Canyon is near Kanab, not Zion, and ROAM runs it from Kanab: a two-hour UTV tour through the sand dunes, or a four-hour “Combo” that adds the Great Chamber alcove at Cutler Point. If Kanab is your base — see Zion and Bryce on one trip — it is the natural choice. If you are staying in Springdale, the Red Cave canyons east of Zion are the nearer slot, through the tunnel; if the tunnel road closes, both are the long way round.
Getting to the east side
East Zion Adventures says its tours leave from points an hour to an hour and a half’s drive from Springdale; Elkheart Canyon departs from Sugar Knoll Chicken in Mount Carmel, and ROAM’s ride-and-rappel trips from its store at 500 East State Street, Orderville. From Springdale all of that is normally through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel, which has construction delays and occasional overnight closures, and which vehicles over 11 ft 4 in tall or 35 ft 9 in long may not use at all. On UDOT’s construction nights the tunnel road is closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., so a sunset or stargazing tour on one of those nights leaves anyone staying in Springdale on the far side of a closed road until 6 a.m., or two and a half hours from bed the long way round by Kanab. Check the nights on the tunnel page before booking one.
A rockfall closed that highway to through traffic from Canyon Junction to the East Entrance from 30 September to 9 October 2026, and it is open again. The tours themselves are outside the park and were outside the closure, and from Kanab, Orderville or Mount Carmel Junction nothing changed. If it closes again, from Springdale it is the long way round by Hurricane, Hildale and Kanab: about 104 miles and 2 hours 25 minutes to Mount Carmel Junction, by OpenStreetMap’s car router. Book from an east-side bed, or allow for that drive both ways, and ask the outfitter about the meeting time before you set off. The details, and the routes around, are on the tunnel page.
With the highway open, driving through the park to reach a tour means paying the park entrance fee — the Park Service is explicit that passing through counts. It is $35 a car for seven days, plus $100 for each non-US resident aged 16 or over unless someone in the car holds an annual pass. The fee page has every case.
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