Zion National Park is a convenient drive through on the road from Page, AZ to Salt Lake City. Follow US 89 from Page, AZ, to Mt Carmel Junction, UT. Then, take a left onto UT Route 9 through the park, to pick up I-15 just north of St. George, UT. The scenic drive through the park includes two mountain tunnels and an endless vista of breathtaking overlooks that finally open up onto a wide canyon that is the heart of the park.

The Zion Canyon Visitor Center offers a nice stop before heading on to the Interstate. Similar to the Grand Canyon, visitors to Zion National Park cannot drive to the most scenic parts of the park. Instead, to visit the overlooks along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, you will need to take one of the shuttle busses running on a regular schedule throughout the day.

Steve and I did not have time to take the shuttles, but you can easily see from the photos that there is plenty of spectacular scenery to enjoy even on a simple drive through. Allow about two hours from the East entrance to the South Entrance of the park.

Zion National Park is part of an extensive geological feature in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona called the Grand Staircase Escalante. Geologically speaking, Zion rests "on top" of the Grand Canyon. These two canyons present not only different perspectives on geology, but also treat the visitor to two different aspects of a canyon: The Grand Canyon is viewed from the top down into the gorge created by the Colorado River over millions of years of erosion. Zion National Park is a spectacular canyon viewed from the bottom up.

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