By Scott Buehler, Kanab localZion, through the east entrance
About 30 miles · About 40 minutes · Entrance fee
This is the arrival most visitors never get. From Kanab you run north on US-89 to Mount Carmel Junction and turn west onto State Route 9, which climbs into the park through slickrock country that looks nothing like the canyon floor everybody photographs. Then you drop through the Mount Carmel tunnel and come out above Zion Canyon with the whole thing below you.
The east side is the quiet side. The famous congestion, the shuttle queue and the parking problem all live at the Springdale end, which from here is another half hour or so beyond the tunnel. Plenty of days out from Kanab never go that far: Checkerboard Mesa, the Canyon Overlook Trail just east of the tunnel, and the slickrock either side of the highway are the whole trip.
If you do continue into the canyon, understand that private vehicles cannot drive the scenic drive for most of the year and you will be parking and taking the shuttle. Zion Canyon and Springdale run closer to an hour and fifteen minutes from a Kanab driveway.
The tunnel has size limits, and they are enforced. Larger vehicles need an escort through the Mount Carmel tunnel, which is arranged at the entrance station during set hours and carries a fee. If you are driving anything big, check the park's current dimensions and hours before you set out rather than discovering it at the booth.
Bryce Canyon, an hour and a half north
About 76 miles · About 1.5 hours · Entrance fee
North on US-89 and then east on State Route 12, climbing the whole way. Bryce sits above 8,000 feet on the rim, which is the fact that catches people out: it can be thirty degrees colder than Kanab on the same afternoon, and it holds snow long after the desert has dried out.
That elevation is also what makes it the good summer trip. When Kanab is in the mid nineties, the Bryce rim is pleasant. The reverse applies in winter, when the hoodoos under snow are genuinely worth the cold drive and the crowds have gone.
It is an easy day out and back from Kanab with time to walk down among the hoodoos rather than only looking at them from the rim. Take a layer regardless of what the thermometer says at home.
The Grand Canyon North Rim, and where it stands now
About 80 miles · Seasonal road · Read this before you go
South on US-89A through Fredonia, then up onto the Kaibab Plateau and south again on State Route 67. The road climbs into ponderosa forest at over 8,000 feet, which is not what most people expect on the way to a desert canyon, and it ends at a rim that receives a small fraction of the visitors the South Rim does.
State Route 67 closes for winter, normally from around the start of December until the middle of May, and that closure is a road closure rather than a park one. There is no way to drive to the North Rim in January.
The larger change is more recent. The Dragon Bravo Fire burned more than 145,000 acres on the North Rim in 2025 and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge along with much of the developed area at the rim. The rim reopened for the 2026 season with the paved roads back in service, including State Route 67, Cape Royal Road and Point Imperial Road, and the major viewpoints reachable: Point Imperial, Cape Royal, Roosevelt Point, Walhalla Overlook and Angels Window. What is gone is the lodge and most of what clustered around it, so the rim now runs on far fewer services than it did before, or than the South Rim does.
Go prepared for a remote rim with limited services. The historic lodge is gone, so there is no in park hotel lodging, and there is no potable water piped at the rim, so carry your own. A seasonal general store and a pay at the pump gas station operate near the campground, and the campground itself is open in season, but this is a bring your own kind of day next to the South Rim. Fredonia and Jacob Lake are your fuel and supply stops on the way up. Recovery is ongoing and services shift year to year, so check the park's current status page the same week you go.
How this differs from the other park pages on The Local
- Hurricane and St. George approach Zion from the west, through Springdale and the shuttle system, and their guides are written for that. This one is the east entrance and the tunnel, which is a different drive and a different day. See the Hurricane parks guide if you are based over there.
- Cedar City reaches Bryce from the north as one of eight day trips. From Kanab it is a straight run up US-89 and State Route 12, and the elevation difference from town is the thing that shapes the day. The Cedar City day trips guide covers the northern approach.
- The Grand Canyon North Rim is the leg none of the western towns can really claim. At about eighty miles it is a comfortable day from Kanab and roughly three hours from the St. George metro, which is a different proposition entirely.