CROWDS, PHONE SERVICE, RESTROOMS, etc.:

Zion Can Indeed Get Very Crowded:

Zion National Park is one of the most popular national parks in the United States with visitation increasing dramatically each year. In 2015, Zion saw over 3.6 million recreational visits. In 2021 and beyond, it sees an average of 5 million recreational visits.

National and state ad campaigns, including the "Find Your Park" campaign and Utah's "Visit the Mighty 5" campaign, have been overwhelmingly successful at promoting tourism and park visitation by highlighting all of the wonderful scenery and activities that you can experience during your vacation. Many other national parks from Acadia to Yosemite are also experiencing surges in visitation that are resulting in gridlock-like experiences.

While most people come to national parks thinking they will find a quiet outdoor wilderness experience, during the busy tourist months, especially weekends and holidays, you may find yourself fighting with traffic jams, long waits in lines, and packed shuttle buses. The experience can feel like an overwhelming mob scene at Disney World--exactly what you were looking to avoid.

While the National Park Service has worked on several crowd-alleviation proposals and ideas, solutions are limited, so when you visit the crowded and popular Zion Canyon, please bring a big bottle of patience with you. Below are a few things to expect and tips to deal with the crowds...

Common Waits and Bottlenecks:

• Driving into the park. The entrance stations have a limited number of booths and it's a slow process for individuals to pay the entrance fee and ask questions. By mid-morning on holiday weekends, the traffic starts to back up into the town of Springdale.
• Parking at the Visitor Center. While the Visitor Center has a fairly large parking lot, all spots are typically filled by mid-morning. NPS recommends that people park in designated lots in Springdale and then take the free town shuttle to the pedestrian entrance of Zion National Park. Many visitors also try to find makeshift roadside parking along Route 9 near Canyon Junction, but this can be chaotic.
• Waiting to ride the shuttle bus at the Visitor Center--this is one of the newest bottlenecks. Even if you get to the park early in the morning, you could still be waiting 30 minutes to over an hour in a Disney World-like queue just to get on the bus that takes you to all of the popular trailheads.

• Crowds on the shuttles. People are often packed on the shuttle buses like sardines with many people standing in the isles.
• Waiting at the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel. If you have a vehicle, it's fun to drive up Route 9 to see the wondrous sandstone formations of the Upper East Canyon, including Checkerboard Mesa. Due to the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel not being tall enough to handle today's large RV's, traffic is often filtered single-file in either direction as the large vehicles are directed through by traffic rangers. Wait time is usually under 20 minutes.
• Waiting in line at the Wilderness Desk. There is typically a long early-morning line at the Wilderness Desk consisting of hikers picking up their walk-in canyoneering and backpacking permits.
• Crowds along the most popular trails, especially Emerald Pools and the Zion Narrows. Sometimes it's very difficult to get away from crowds when you are doing a hike that is featured in every "Top 10 Hikes You Need to Do Before You Die" list.

Alternatives to Fighting the Crowds:

• Summer tourist season (mid-May through mid-September) is the most crazy. Many families can only go on vacation in the summer when school is out, but if your life situation allows, consider visiting Zion during the shoulder months (March-April, October-November) or even the winter months instead. While Zion is becoming popular year-round, there is some crowd relief in the offseason.
• Consider avoiding Zion National Park on holidays like Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, or any of the free entrance days unless you are emotionally prepared to deal with crowds and lines.
• If you are looking to do a short hike in Zion Canyon, late afternoon and early evening are good times of day as most people have started to leave the park for dinner in Springdale. (But pay attention to the time and don't miss the last shuttle or get caught out after dark!)
• Instead of visiting the crowded Zion Canyon on weekends, pay a visit to the Kolob Canyons section; there are several great viewpoints and trails in this isolated northwestern section of the park with only a small fraction of the people.

Cell Phone Service:

Cell phone service is spotty in most national parks and Zion is no exception. You can get reliable cell phone service from Springdale and the Zion Canyon Visitor Center all the way to Canyon Junction. Service is also good at the Zion Lodge, but further up Zion Canyon, especially close to the Temple of Sinawava, your phone will be mostly offline. You can get service at most high points in Zion, including the summit of Angels Landing, Observation Point, and the top of the Sand Bench Trail.

In more remote areas of Zion National Park, you are unlikely to get reliable service, but amazingly, you can get service on top of several peaks in the Upper East Canyon as well as at the Left Fork Trailhead and the Hop Valley Trailhead in the Kolob Terrace section.

If you are relying on your phone for navigation or communication on your trip, make sure that your GPS functions in offline mode and that you have downloaded necessary map data before entering Zion National Park. For reliable communication in the wilderness, consider purchasing a satellite communicator like the Garmin inReach Mini 3 and test it out before your trip.

Finding Restrooms:

Bathrooms are such an unglamorous topic, but at some point during the day, finding one will be important. Thankfully, facilities can be found at just about every shuttle stop in Zion Canyon. The most modern bathrooms can be found at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, the Human History Museum, and at the Zion Lodge.

More primative restrooms can be found at the Grotto, Weeping Rock, and the Temple of Sinawava. And if you are hiking the Angels Landing Trail, a pit toilet can be found at Scout's Lookout just before the final chains section.

In the Upper East Canyon, pit toilets can be found near the Canyon Overlook Trailhead as well as the "Many Pools" roadside parking area east of the small tunnel. Along the Kolob Terrace Road, pit toilets can be found at the popular Left Fork (Subway) Trailhead, the Hop Valley Trailhead, and the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead.

In the Kolob Canyons section, a full bathroom can be found at the Kolob Visitor Center near the entrance, and pit toilets are present at the Taylor Creek Trailhead, the South Fork of Taylor Creek Trailhead, and at the Timber Creek Overlook Trailhead at the end of the Kolob Canyons Scenic Drive.

If nature calls during a hike in the wild, find a discreet spot well off of the trail and please be prepared to pack out your tissue paper and your solid human waste. Why do I need to pack out my poo?

Minimize Your Impact:

Because so many people visit Zion National Park every day, it is quite easy for human activity to have a devastating effect on Zion's fragile desert and riparian ecosystems. It is important to be aware of what good behavior is and to practice "leave no trace" ethics wherever you explore.

1. Stay on the trail and obey any "do not hike here" signs or fences. When accessing rivers or streams, try to avoid trampling vegetation and do not pick any flowers.
2. Pack out all trash including tissue paper and solid human waste; do not leave anything behind on or near the trail.
3. Do not carve or scratch your name into any rock formations. This has become a big problem at the Angels Landing viewpoint and in the Zion Narrows, and the National Park Service considers this to be a form of vandalism. If you see somebody doing this, please be brave enough to tell them to stop and consider reporting them to rangers.
4. Do not paint mud handprints on the canyon walls. People doing mud "artwork" in the Zion Narrows is a real problem. Even though some might not think this is a big deal, it ruins the experience for others and somebody else will have to clean it up. If you see somebody doing this, please tell them to stop.
5. Leave the animals alone and do not feed them. Friendly squirrels and chipmunks will come up to you begging for food, but it is illegal to feed them. And while spotting mule deer or bighorn sheep can be an exciting experience, do not approach them or get close to them. They don't need your help and they don't need you to pet them.
6. Do not build decorative cairns anywhere in the park, especially at popular viewpoints and in the Zion Narrows. While this may seem like harmless entertainment, it ruins the nature experience for others. If you really can't resist building a cairn, build it, take a photo, and then disassemble it.
7. When exploring the backcountry, stick to solid rock surfaces as much as possible and avoid stepping on delicate cryptobiotic soil.

Please do your best to keep your national parks clean. It is up to all of us to act as responsible caretakers of our special public lands and keep things looking nice for the people who visit after us.

Continue to Hiking in Zion!