The road east La Verkin
State designation 1990, national designation 2021, western end here
The Zion Park Scenic Byway starts on the edge of La Verkin.
The junction of State Route 9 and SR-17 is mile zero of a 54 mile national scenic byway that ends at Zion's east entrance. Here is the drive, the traffic season, the last real services, the SunTran bus, and the paved trail that is funded and still not built.
By Scott Buehler, La Verkin local
Updated September 2026
Start here
Where the byway begins.
The Zion Park Scenic Byway is State Route 9, and it starts right here in La Verkin, at the corner where SR-9 meets SR-17 on the east edge of town. From that junction the road runs 54 miles east, through Virgin, Rockville and Springdale, to the east entrance of Zion National Park. The drive most people picture as the approach to Zion actually begins the moment they turn off toward the park in La Verkin.
Utah made the whole of SR-9 a state scenic byway in 1990, and the federal designation followed in 2021 for these 54 miles from the La Verkin junction to the park. Nobody here makes much of being the western end of a national byway. In plainer terms it is the launch point: the last town on the road with a full grocery store, an ordinary gas station, and prices a national park has not set, where you fill the tank and the cooler before the corridor narrows.
The town at mile zero
Living at the western end of the byway.
Being the western terminus of a National Scenic Byway is a genuinely odd thing for a small town to be, and almost nobody who lives here brings it up. The designation shapes funding, signage, and which local governments sit at the table when the corridor gets planned. It does not change the driving.
This page takes the road, not the park. Springdale walks in through the pedestrian gate, Virgin owns the high country up Kolob Terrace Road, Rockville owns the last few miles into the canyon, and Hurricane owns the day trip from the far side of the gorge. What belongs to La Verkin is the byway itself, from the end where it starts, so that is what you get here.
The byway, at a glance
1990
SR-9 designated a state scenic byway
2021
national scenic byway designation
54 mi
La Verkin to Zion's east entrance
~20 mi
to the south entrance at Springdale
The designation, and the hole in the middle of it
Fifty four miles, with one town left out of the paperwork.
The national designation did not come from a scenic committee deciding the road was pretty. It came from an alliance of the towns along it putting together a corridor management plan, which is the document a road needs before the federal program will look at it. La Verkin is the western terminus because that is where the plan started, at the SR-9 and SR-17 junction. SR-9 was the first road in Utah to earn the national designation.
At the time the plan was assembled, Kane County, which holds the stretch from Zion's east entrance out to Mt Carmel Junction, and Hurricane City on the western end, both opted out of the process. That is why the designated corridor runs from a junction in La Verkin rather than from the interstate, and why the last few miles to US-89 are not part of it. There is also a gap in the designation at the Town of Virgin.
None of that changes the driving. It changes the funding, the signage and which local governments sit at the table when the corridor gets planned, and it is worth knowing because the same table decides things like the paved trail below. Virgin has since supported the updated plan and Kane County has expressed interest in extending it, so the map may fill in.
Two designations, thirty one years apart, covering nearly but not exactly the same road: the 1990 state byway runs the full length of SR-9, about 57 miles from I-15 at Hurricane to US-89 at Mt Carmel Junction, while the 2021 national byway covers the 54 miles from the La Verkin junction to Zion's east entrance, with a gap at Virgin and Kane County's miles left out.
The drive east
Twenty miles to the park gate, and four towns in between.
From the junction the road climbs out of the La Verkin bench, past mesas and the head of the gorge, and settles into a run of small towns strung along the river. Virgin comes first at about six miles, and the road out the back of it is the one that climbs onto Kolob Terrace. Rockville follows, then Springdale, then the park gate at about twenty miles and roughly twenty seven minutes from town.
The first ten miles out of La Verkin are the underrated part, and they are best in the last hour of light, when the cliffs on the north side go orange and the traffic heading the other way has already gone home. It is a genuinely good short drive that most people experience as a commute to somewhere else.
Each of those towns has its own page here, written from its own ground: Virgin for the west side of the park and the road up to the reservoir, Rockville for the quiet mile and the 1924 bridge, and Springdale for walking into Zion without a car. This page hands them the ground rather than describing it twice.
Park entry costs more in 2026 than most published guidance says, for some visitors. Since 1 January 2026 a surcharge applies at Zion and ten other parks for visitors who are not United States residents: $100 per person aged 16 and over on top of the ordinary entrance fee, or a $250 non resident annual pass covering the holder plus other passengers in one non commercial vehicle. Check current fees before pricing a park day.
Two ways up this road that are not a car
A low-fare bus that runs, and a paved trail that does not exist yet.
The bus is real. SunTran's Zion Route started in late 2024 and runs between St. George and Springdale by way of Hurricane, La Verkin and Virgin, Monday through Saturday, with a low flat fare. It is the first scheduled public transportation this corridor has had, it is built around the park run rather than a working day, and park employees and people without a second car use it far more than visitors do. Check the current timetable rather than any summary, because it has already changed once.
The trail is not. The Zion Corridor Trail is a planned paved path roughly 18 miles long and 12 feet wide, running from La Verkin to the park along this route, with an underpass, bridges and boardwalks. It is funded at about $13.5 million, roughly $10.8 million from UDOT and $2.7 million from Washington County, with a preferred route along an old highway bed just south of SR-9, and it has been working through environmental assessment and right of way clearance.
A destination development page has described it as finishing in 2026. That is a target rather than a status, and through La Verkin nothing of it is open. Built out, it would change this corridor more than the byway designation did, because a person on a bicycle currently has to share a park highway with everybody driving to a park.
A town that spent a century being driven through is now the western end of a national byway, a bus route and a trail that has not been built. Two of those three are already useful.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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Read the guideMoving here
Two city halls, one valley
Two cities four minutes apart, two of everything, and about 14 percent between them.
Read the guideThe companion
La Verkin, from a local
The springs, the river park, the tunnel and the byway, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The byway, answered.
At the junction of State Route 9 and SR-17 on the edge of La Verkin. That junction is the western terminus of the 54 mile national scenic byway designated in 2021, which runs east from there to Zion National Park's east entrance.
At the state level, yes. The Utah Legislature designated the entirety of SR-9 a State Scenic Byway in 1990, about 57 miles from I-15 at Hurricane to US-89 at Mt Carmel Junction. The federal national scenic byway designation from 2021 covers a shorter 54 miles, from the La Verkin junction to the park's east entrance.
The national designation followed a corridor management plan assembled by the towns along the road. Kane County, which holds the miles from the east entrance out to Mt Carmel Junction, and Hurricane City on the western end both opted out of that process at the time, and there is a gap at the Town of Virgin. Virgin has since supported the updated plan and Kane County has expressed interest in extending it.
About 20 miles to the south entrance at Springdale, roughly a 27 minute drive east on State Route 9. Virgin is about six miles out, with Rockville and Springdale beyond it.
Roughly March through October, in the morning heading east and again around dusk heading west. Locals learn the rhythm and run errands in the middle of the day. The highway quiets down noticeably from November.
Yes. SunTran's Zion Route began in late 2024 and runs between St. George and Springdale by way of Hurricane, La Verkin and Virgin, Monday through Saturday, with a low flat fare. It is built around the park run rather than a commuting day, and the timetable has already changed once, so check the current schedule.
No. It is a planned paved path of roughly 18 miles and 12 feet wide, from La Verkin to the park along this route, funded at about $13.5 million with roughly $10.8 million from UDOT and $2.7 million from Washington County, and it has been working through environmental assessment and right of way clearance. Some promotional material has described it as finishing in 2026, which is a target rather than a status. Nothing of it is open through La Verkin.
The ordinary entrance fee applies, and since 1 January 2026 there is an additional surcharge for visitors who are not United States residents: $100 per person aged 16 and over, or a $250 non resident annual pass covering the holder plus other passengers in one non commercial vehicle. Zion is one of eleven parks where this applies. Check current fees directly before pricing a park day.
It is the practical one. Heading east this is the last town with a full grocery store, ordinary fuel prices and a pharmacy, and every town beyond it is smaller and set up around visitors rather than residents. Filling the tank and the cooler here rather than at the park gate is what people who live on this road actually do.
Living on a park highway is a different question from driving one.
The traffic season, which side of State Street a house sits on, and how far it is from the junction all show up in what a La Verkin property is worth and how it lives. Those are the details worth getting right before an offer rather than after.
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