Tag: zion

Visitation rates at the country's national parks is highest during the spring and summer, when sunny weather makes for great hiking and sightseeing in the outdoor spaces.  Many times national parks are slightly cooler than cities due to the fact that there is little as far as structures which would trap heat and restrict wind flow.  While many of the national parks of the southwestern United States will begin to see snow and colder temperatures in the winter, this seasonal change actually does make the trip more enjoyable in many respects.  In a place like Zion Canyon national park, this slight drop in temperatures actually thins the crowds down significantly, making the experience feel far more personal.  There are many who feel that winter is the exact right time to visit Zion, as the hiking and nature walks are less crowded yet offer the exact same spectacular views.  Bringing a jacket is a small price to pay to avoid the crowds. Zion Canyon has become one of the country's most popular tourism spots, probably due to a combination of effective marketing to younger people and the proximity to Las Vegas.  One of the major drawbacks that has caused national park's tourism rates to decline is their distance from any city that can support airline traffic.  Since most people do not live within driving distance of the park they want to visit, they need to fly into the nearest city and use it as a starting point for their trip.  Most major cities that have commercial airports are a minimum of four hours drive from the nearest park, with some being even more than that.  Zion is an exception, being located only 2.5 hours driving from Las Vegas.  Because of the sheer amounts of people who visit Las Vegas every year

One of the common questions that tour companies like ourselves that provide tours to Zion Canyon from Las Vegas are often asked is why we generally put Zion as the first stop.  What this means is that our overnight, three day and seven day tours all involve multiple national parks, so why do we always go to Zion as the first stop on the trip? Well thats actually pretty easy to answer, Zion Canyon is the closest park to our starting point on the Las Vegas strip, and we structure our tours to be a "tour loop." What this does is create a circle that minimizes the driving times and maximizes the amount of time that we get to spend at each destination.  Zion Canyon is a 2.5 hour drive from Las Vegas, and we have found that if we are going to tour Zion and Bryce, it is better to drive to Zion first and then to Bryce from there, as opposed to driving to Bryce first.  Because our longer tours will also offer additional parks like Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, we have found that making Zion our first stop not only makes sense as far as logistics, but it also gives our guests the best experience by providing the beauty of one of America's most treasured parks within a short time of being picked up on the first day. This is probably why Zion is so popular now.  The National Parks Department was seeing reduced traffic at national parks over the past few years, and came up with a brilliant campaign called "Find Your Park" that dramatically increased tourist numbers to parks.  One curious thing that nobody predicted, however, is that the amount of visitors to Zion grew far quicker than all other parks, and this

The recent tragedy in Zion National Park where three people were killed and four others went missing after flood waters swept them away while hiking is a terrible thing, but should not cast a shadow over the potential for exploration of these scenic places.  The incident happened in Utah's Zion National Park, and involved a situation where the hiking group was within a slot canyon when flash flood waters suddenly swept them away.  There has been some criticism of park officials for not closing the park canyons for hiking earlier, however this case followed the standard procedure of providing weather warnings to the hikers as they picked up their permit for the day, as well as closing the slot canyons once weather reached a point that it would be considered dangerous.  The hiking team had left before the weather warnings reached the critical level, and thus were out in the canyon at the point of closure. While this is a tragic incident, it should be noted that exploration and hiking in our National Parks is actually quite safe, and statistics prove that enjoyment of these spaces provides only a minuscule amount of deaths per year compared to the actual number of visitors.  For example, statistics show that there have been a total of 1,025 deaths in all National Parks combined between the years of  2007 and 2013.  When compared to the billions of people who traveled to these parks and enjoyed them without incident, it is easily seen that they are far safer than it appears when stories like this most recent one surface.  When compared against mortality rates of the general population (835 per 100,000 people in 2013) you can actually see that exploring our country's national parks is actually far safer than just going about daily life on