Zion canyoneering tours compared: rappels, ages, prices

Nobody can guide you down a canyon inside Zion. The Park Service prohibits guided activities in Zion Wilderness, and every technical canyon in the park is in Wilderness. So every guided canyoneering trip sold near Zion runs on neighboring land, a drive from Springdale or from the east side. The rules, and how to get a permit to do it yourself, are on the slot canyon page. This page is the other half: who takes you, where, how many rappels, and what it costs.

In short: the six outfitters here run guided canyoneering tours around Zion, three from Springdale and three from the east side or the Kolob Terrace Road. A half day or shorter trip runs from $89 a person, for East Zion Adventures’ Hidden Creek, to $239 each for two on a private Springdale trip; it takes first-timers and usually includes 2 to 7 rappels. Children can go from age 4 with ROAM and from 5 with most of the rest, and every outfitter supplies the technical gear. Red Desert Adventure books every trip private and starts its half, full and High Adventure days from either side of the park, and for a canyoneering vacation, Zion Guru runs a private 3- to 5-day tour and Red Desert teaches 1- to 3-day courses.

Zion’s canyoneering guides, side by side

Rates are per person, before tax. The three Springdale outfitters’ rates are for a group of two, because most of their trips are private and the per-person price falls as the group grows: Zion Adventure Company’s half day as of 30 October 2026, and its full day, Zion Guru’s and Red Desert’s as of 23 September. East Zion Adventures and ROAM are priced from their Viator listings as read on 4 October, and Desert Bound Adventures from its listing as read on 30 October. The four trips we would pick first are linked below — Zion Adventure Company’s half day, ROAM’s 2.5-hour trip, East Zion Adventures’ Elkheart and Desert Bound’s half day — with ROAM’s via ferrata. Two of East Zion Adventures’ canyons, Hidden Creek and Rock Drop, are not on Viator; their rates are as of 30 October.

Zion Adventure Company adds 8.38% sales tax and 6% in fees at checkout, Zion Guru a sales tax charge of 8.38%, and Red Desert 6.75% plus processing fees; check the others’ checkout for tax and fees.

Both canyons also take people who come along without rappelling. Hidden Creek, a beginner canyon, is $89 for a rappeller and $29 for someone who hikes along; Rock Drop is $149 for an adult rappeller, $139 aged 8 to 17, and $79 for a passenger from age 5. They come with East Zion Adventures’ own cancellation terms, which are stricter than Viator’s; both sets are below.

Rappelling near Zion: rappels, lengths and ages

This is the column the booking pages bury, and it decides whether a trip suits your group.

Zion Guru publishes the most useful single number: its rappels run from 20 to 175 feet. The half and full days both include multiple rappels up to 60 feet, a full day may go as high as 175, and the higher rappels are optional and offered only when they suit the group. Its Elevated full days go taller still, and it publishes no height for them.

Red Desert Adventure gives a ceiling for each trip, and its own pages differ on the full day. Its canyoneering page puts rappels at up to 140 feet on a half day, 150 on a full day, with 6 to 10 rappels, and 180 on High Adventure, with 8 to 10. Its FAQ page gives the half day and High Adventure the same, but the full day 6 to 8 or more rappels up to 140 feet; its full-day trip page says 6 to 8. The High Adventure trip page says 10 or more. The table gives the trip pages’ counts; ask which applies to your canyon.

The biggest published canyoneering rappels are in Oak Creek. Red Desert’s two Oak Creek trips end on a via ferrata, 500 feet of near-vertical climbing that is the only way out of the canyon, and its pages put the rappels at up to 200 feet on the North Fork and 180 on the South Fork. The trip pages count 5 or 6 rappels on the North Fork and 5 on the South Fork, its via ferrata page 4 or 5 on either, and its FAQ page 5 to 7.

East Zion Adventures names its canyons

The Springdale outfitters’ guides choose a canyon on the morning, though Red Desert will take a request. East Zion Adventures sells named canyons, each with its own rappel count and age limit, which is the better fit if you want to know exactly what you are signing up for:

Elkheart is linked below, and Stone Hollow is in Viator’s full Zion list. Coral Sands is on Viator too, at the price above, but Viator files it under Utah rather than Zion, so it is not in that list. On Viator all three cancel free up to 24 hours before the trip.

Two cautions. The numbers do not always agree with themselves: Coral Sands is billed as five rappels “with the highest descent 70 feet tall” and, further down the same page, “some reaching up to 100 feet high”, and a second listing for the same named canyons puts Powell’s Way at 6 rappels, not 4 to 5. And Powell’s Way is described as an off-road excursion “into the heart of Zion National Park”. Off-road vehicles are prohibited inside the park, and the operator’s own FAQ is clear that none of its tours take place inside it, so read that as the country beside the park.

East Zion Adventures and ROAM both set a 250-pound weight limit on their canyoneering trips (ROAM’s via ferrata allows 265). The other four outfitters here do not print one.

Lamb’s Knoll, on the Kolob Terrace Road

Desert Bound Adventures runs a canyoneering half day at Lamb’s Knoll, a sandstone crag on Bureau of Land Management land 10.6 miles up the Kolob Terrace Road from Virgin — outside the park, so the Wilderness rule above does not apply. The BLM describes the site as more than 25 climbing routes with “a range of canyoneering objectives”, a developed trailhead and a restroom.

• $133.06 a person for 4 hours of hiking, scrambling and several rappels; the listing’s description gives 3 to 4.
• Included: the gear and instruction. Water, snacks and the guide’s tip are not, so bring all three.
• Fitness: moderate, and not recommended with a bad back.
• Meeting point: a dirt parking area beside the Kolob Terrace Road, so you need a car.

It is a new listing with a single review so far.

ROAM — East Zion: ride and rappel from Orderville

ROAM Outdoor Adventure Co. runs its Zion trips from its store at 500 East State Street in Orderville, on US-89 north of Mount Carmel Junction, and each of its three East Zion canyoneering trips includes a UTV ride. Its own site sets out the three, and rates all three moderate:

• 2.5 hours: a short UTV ride, then 3 or 4 rappels of 10 to 45 feet, no experience needed, from age 4. The shortest and smallest of ROAM’s three, at the youngest minimum age any outfitter here prints.
• 4 hours: a short UTV ride from the store to the trailhead, then a brisk half-mile hike up a steep incline to the canyon head and 3 to 7 rappels of 10 to 110 feet, and the site’s warning is to be prepared to get wet. The UTV waits at the bottom of the canyon to bring you back. From age 4.
• The full day, 7 to 8 hours: three slot canyons near the East Entrance, 7 to 10 rappels of 10 to 120 feet and about 4 miles of hiking. From age 4.

Which canyon. ROAM’s own site names no canyon for these three trips; its Viator listings do. The descriptions of the 2.5- and 4-hour listings — the first linked below, the second on the UTV page — name Coal Hollow Slot Canyon, and their itineraries name Ladder Canyon, right next to Sugar Knoll. The 2.5-hour trip rappels the bottom half of Ladder Canyon. The full day, listed on Viator at six hours, goes to Upper Red Cave, explored on foot as far up as the group can get, then rappels into Lower Red Cave and through Ladder Canyon.

Its 2-hour UTV Slot Canyon Tour, $104, has no ropes: it drives to the mouths of Red Cave and Lower Red Cave and walks you in, and it is on the East Zion UTV page. ROAM also runs the East Zion Via Ferrata, on its own land half a mile up US-89 from the store, linked below at $199 a person: four and a half hours on the listing, with three pitches of more than 250 feet each, over 1,000 feet from the ground to the top (almost 1,000 by ROAM’s own page), then four rappels and some scrambling through small canyons. The rappel into a small white-rock slot is 165 feet by the listing, 190 by ROAM’s East Zion page and 220 by its via ferrata page. The listing takes climbers from age 10, and ROAM sets a 265-pound weight limit.

Red Desert Adventure: private trips from either side

Red Desert Adventure books every trip private, your group and a guide with no strangers mixed in, and starts its half, full and High Adventure days from whichever side suits you: Springdale, Virgin or La Verkin on the west, Mount Carmel Junction on the east. Its half and full days run all year, starting at 7:30 a.m., or at 2 p.m. for a half day.

• Half day: 4 hours, 3 to 6 or more rappels, from age 5. $215 each for two.
• Full day: 7 hours, 6 to 8 rappels, from age 5. $285 each for two.
• High Adventure: 8 hours or more, 10 or more rappels, from age 12.
• Oak Creek + Via Ferrata: the North Fork, 7 hours, June to November, $350 each for two, or the South Fork, 8 hours or more with waterfall rappels, June to October, $400 each for two. From age 15, starting from Virgin or La Verkin, with rappels up to 200 feet on the North Fork and 180 on the South, and the via ferrata as the only way out.

The price per person falls as the group grows, to $135 each on a half day for six or more, and 6.75% sales tax and processing fees are added. Red Desert lists twenty technical canyon routes, ten on each side of the park — Lamb’s Knoll, Water Canyon and Yankee Doodle among them in the west, Lower Red Cave and Birch Hollow in the east — and you can ask for one by name when you book or leave the choice to the guide on the day. It also runs half- and full-day family trips and the courses below.

Family canyoneering near Zion

Five of the six outfitters print a minimum age for children, and two build a trip around them:

• Zion Adventure Company’s Family Slot Canyon Tour is for families with at least one child aged 5 to 12. It is private, and the guide picks the canyon on the day for your children’s ages and comfort. A half day is $219 a person for two, $199 for three or four, $179 for five or six and $159 for seven or more; a full day runs from $279 down to $189. It meets at the shop at 36 Lion Boulevard, and the drive to the canyon is 35 to 75 minutes.
• Red Desert Adventure runs private half- and full-day family trips. Its family page puts the minimum age at 5; its full-day family trip page says 7, so for a child under 7 the half day is the safe choice.
• ROAM takes children from 4 on all three ride-and-rappel trips; the 2.5-hour one, with 3 or 4 rappels of 10 to 45 feet, is the one to start with.
• Zion Guru takes children from 5, and its higher rappels are optional.
• East Zion Adventures’ Hidden Creek (6+) has a bypass around its two rappels, and on Rock Drop (8+) family members who are not rappelling can come along to watch.

Which one fits your group

You want to know the canyon. East Zion Adventures names its canyons, and Red Desert will take a request for one of those it lists. ROAM’s own site gives the area and the rappels, not the canyon’s name, but its Viator listings name them, as the ROAM section above sets out. Zion Adventure Company and Zion Guru leave it to the guide, which is a feature when the weather turns: the guide can move you to a canyon that is safe that day.

You are staying in Springdale without a car. Zion Guru picks up from Springdale lodging at no charge, and Zion Adventure Company meets at its shop on Lion Boulevard and drives you to the canyon and back; its half day is linked below. The east-side trips need a car and the drive through the tunnel. A rockfall closed the tunnel road to through traffic from 30 September to 9 October 2026, which put them two and a half hours from Springdale the long way round by Kanab, and it can close again. The tunnel page has the routes.

The lowest price. East of the park, East Zion Adventures’ Hidden Creek, a beginner canyon with two short rappels and a bypass, is $89 for a rappeller, the lowest canyoneering price on this page, with dates from March 2027; it is not on Viator, and it comes with the operator’s own cancellation terms, stricter than Viator’s. Desert Bound’s half day at Lamb’s Knoll is $133.06, and ROAM’s 2.5-hour ride-and-rappel is $136 and takes children from 4. From the Springdale side, Zion Adventure Company’s shared half day at $175 each, linked below, is the lowest for a party of one to three, if you are happy to share the canyon with another group. From four people up, Red Desert’s private half day costs less: $160 each for four, $145 for five and $135 for six or more, before tax.

A family with children aged 5 to 12. Zion Adventure Company’s Family Slot Canyon Tour, Red Desert’s family trips or ROAM’s 2.5-hour day; the family section above compares them.

You do not want ropes at all. Then this is the wrong page. The UTV trips that drive you to the mouth of a slot and walk you in are on the East Zion UTV and jeep page.

A canyoneering vacation around Zion

Several guided days in a row. Zion Guru’s Best of Zion Multi-Day Adventure Tour runs 3 to 5 days with a private guide, starting with a pickup in the St. George or Las Vegas area, and canyoneering is one of the half- or full-day activities you choose each day, alongside the Narrows, hiking, e-biking and climbing. Its 2026 rates for two people are $1,800 each for three days, $2,200 for four and $2,700 for five, with packed lunches, breakfast from the second day and all the driving; lodging, tax and gratuities are extra.

Learning to do it yourself. Red Desert Adventure teaches 1-, 2- and 3-day canyoneering courses, eight hours a day, working up from rappelling and rope management to anchors, pull cords and pothole escapes, and a 4-hour class in the basic rappelling that beginner canyons such as the Subway, Keyhole Canyon and Orderville Canyon call for. Zion Adventure Company runs one-day and three-day basic courses too. Those canyons are inside the park, where every one that needs ropes needs a canyoneering permit; how to get one is on the slot canyon page.

The season. Red Desert runs its half and full days all year, and ROAM’s three ride-and-rappel trips and Desert Bound’s half day have dates on sale on Viator in every month. East Zion Adventures’ canyons do not: on Viator, Elkheart and Stone Hollow have no date on sale from November 2026 through February 2027, and Coral Sands none from December through February or from May through July 2027. Hidden Creek, which is not on Viator, has no date on sale before 1 March 2027, and Rock Drop none after October 2026. ROAM’s via ferrata has none before 9 March 2027. Zion Adventure Company’s half day has dates on most days of November 2026 (none on 2, 3 or 26 November), none from December through February, and every day again from March 2027. July to September is the monsoon, when thunderstorms make flash floods most likely and an outfitter is most likely to move your canyon or call the day off, so a trip built around canyoneering then wants a spare day in it.

Weather, floods and your money

Every one of these canyons can flash flood, and the outfitter decides whether you go. Their terms, as published:

• Zion Adventure Company: full refund more than 3 days out, nothing within 72 hours. “Weather conditions do not permit clients to cancel trips.” If the guide judges conditions unsafe, it reschedules or offers a comparable trip, and refunds in full if neither is possible. At checkout it offers trip insurance for 5% more, which moves the full refund on a guided trip to 24 hours before it.
• Zion Guru: free cancellation up to 7 days out, 50% back from 7 to 2 days, nothing inside 48 hours. A trip it cancels for weather is refunded in full if it cannot be rescheduled.
• Red Desert Adventure: full refund less a 5% service fee up to 7 days out, and nothing inside that unless the guide is rebooked.
• East Zion Adventures, ROAM and Desert Bound Adventures, on Viator: a full refund up to 24 hours before the trip, the latest free cancellation on this page, and on each of their listings linked below a trip canceled for poor weather is offered another date or a full refund.
• Hidden Creek and Rock Drop, the two East Zion Adventures canyons that are not on Viator: its FAQ promises 80% back up to 24 hours before, but the terms you agree to at checkout are stricter. Cancel up to 30 days out and it keeps 10% of the total; from 30 days to 48 hours out, half; inside 48 hours, everything. Checkout offers trip protection for 15% more, which lets you cancel or reschedule up to 12 hours before and get the ticket price back, less the protection and processing fees.

Zion Guru’s, Red Desert’s, and Hidden Creek’s and Rock Drop’s terms are the outfitters’ own. Zion Adventure Company’s are its own too. A trip booked through the Viator links below carries the terms printed on its listing.

How the Park Service rates flood risk, and what a 30 percent chance of rain actually means for a slot canyon, is on the flash flood page.

Carry your water

Bring what you will drink: the outfitters’ packing lists ask for 1 to 3 liters a person, depending on the length of the trip. Do not plan to filter from a stream. The Park Service’s current advisory is to drink no instream water in Zion because of toxic cyanobacteria, and it states that recreational filters are not effective at reducing the toxins to safe levels.

Booking

Below are ROAM’s 2.5-hour ride-and-rappel trip, Zion Adventure Company’s half day from Springdale, East Zion Adventures’ Elkheart canyon, Desert Bound’s half day at Lamb’s Knoll and ROAM’s via ferrata, then Viator’s full list of Zion experiences, where ROAM’s 4-hour trip, Stone Hollow and ROAM’s six-hour day are too; Coral Sands is not, because Viator files it under Utah. ROAM’s 4-hour trip is also linked on the East Zion UTV page. Check the departure point on anything from the full list before you book: some leave from Las Vegas or St. George, not from Springdale or the east side.