Permits and trails Virgin
Zion's quiet third, and its paperwork
The Subway and Hop Valley, from this side.
Every trailhead on this page sits on the road that leaves the middle of Virgin. Two of them run on permit systems that people plan whole trips around, and three good walks up here need nothing at all. Here is which is which, how the lottery works, and what the west side of Zion actually asks of you.
Start here
Two permit systems, and three trails with neither.
Zion's western side is where the park keeps its quiet, and the price of the quiet is paperwork on the two best known routes and nothing at all on the rest. Sorting out which is which before you drive up is most of the planning, because there is no ranger station, no visitor centre and no phone signal on this side of the park to sort it out for you.
The Subway runs on its own lottery, separate from everything else in Zion, with a fixed number of people admitted per day. Overnight travel in the wilderness, which is what Hop Valley is for most people, runs on the park's wilderness permit system, which is a different application on the same website. And Northgate Peaks, Wildcat Canyon and the West Rim from Lava Point need no permit whatsoever, which is the fact this page most wants you to leave with.
Everything below starts from a trailhead on Kolob Terrace Road. If you have not read about the road itself, its season and the gate that shuts it for half the year, start with the road guide and come back, because a permit for a day the road is closed is a wasted lottery entry.
The famous one
The Subway is two different trips.
The photograph everybody has seen is a curved, tube shaped section of the Left Fork of North Creek with green water stepping down through it. There are two ways to stand in that spot, and the difference between them is the difference between a hard day walk and a technical canyon descent.
The bottom up route starts at the Left Fork trailhead on Kolob Terrace Road, drops into the canyon and works upstream to the formation and back the same way. It is in the region of nine miles there and back, it is off trail for nearly all of that, and it involves wading, boulder hopping and enough route finding that people genuinely lose the thread on the way out. Most parties take somewhere between six and ten hours. No ropes are needed, but strong ankles and a willingness to get wet are not optional.
The top down route is a canyoneering descent that enters from the Wildcat Canyon side, requires rappels and cold water swims, involves a vehicle shuttle between two trailheads, and is a different application with different requirements. If you are asking whether you can do it, the honest answer is that this page is not the place you should be getting that answer from.
Neither version allows camping. The permit is for a day, and the day is longer than most people plan for.
This is a flash flood canyon. The Left Fork drains high country miles above the trailhead, and a storm you cannot see from the parking area can put water down it. Check the park's flash flood potential rating for the day, not the valley forecast, and if it is elevated do something else. That decision has to be made in the valley, because you will have no way to receive new information once you are in the canyon.
The permit
How the lottery actually works.
Every person entering the Left Fork needs a permit, and permits are issued through Recreation.gov rather than at any office near here. There are two ways in. The seasonal lottery takes applications between the first and the twenty fifth of a month for dates roughly four months ahead, and posts results near the end of that month. Whatever the seasonal lottery does not allocate goes to a daily lottery closer to the date.
The park caps the number of people admitted per day, and published figures for that cap have varied over the years and by season, so treat any specific number you read, including on this page, as a thing to confirm rather than a thing to rely on. Applying costs a small non refundable fee whether you win or not, and the permit itself is priced per person on top of that.
The odds are what they are. Popular Saturdays in May and October are heavily oversubscribed; a Tuesday in late September is a different proposition. If you live within an hour of the trailhead you have an advantage a visitor does not, because you can enter the daily lottery repeatedly across a season and go when it comes up rather than when your flights say.
The long one
Hop Valley, and the arch at the end of it.
Hop Valley trailhead is further up Kolob Terrace Road, and it is the southern way in to La Verkin Creek and to Kolob Arch, one of the largest freestanding spans in the world. It is a very different walk from the Subway: a route rather than a scramble, in open country rather than a slot.
It is also sandier than anybody expects and it crosses a stretch of private ranch ground under an easement, with cattle in it, which surprises people who assume a national park trail means nobody's animals. Take the gates as you find them and leave them that way.
As a day hike it is a long out and back and most people do not get to the arch and home again comfortably. As an overnight it is one of the better backpacking trips in Southern Utah, and that is where the second permit system comes in: overnight wilderness travel requires a Zion wilderness permit for a specific campsite or zone, applied for through the park rather than through the Subway lottery. Group size in the wilderness is capped at twelve.
The one restriction that catches long distance walkers: a site at Lava Point Campground cannot be used as part of a wilderness backpacking itinerary. If you are planning the traverse across the park, that piece has to be solved another way.
The west side of Zion asks for planning instead of patience. The canyon side asks for the opposite.
No lottery required
Three walks that ask nothing of you.
This is the part of the west side that gets lost behind the famous slot, and it is the part I actually send people to.
Northgate Peaks leaves from the Wildcat Canyon trailhead, roughly fifteen and a half miles up the road, and runs mostly level through ponderosa to a lava slab viewpoint set between two rock peaks. It is around four miles there and back with very little climbing, it needs no permit and no lottery, and on a weekday outside the summer peak you can have the end of it to yourself. If the Subway lottery goes against you, this is the consolation that is arguably the better afternoon.
Wildcat Canyon Trail runs from the same parking, following what used to be a four wheel drive road across largely flat ground. It is the connective tissue of this side of the park, joining toward Hop Valley on one hand and the West Rim on the other, and it is a pleasant walk in its own right at an elevation where summer is bearable.
The West Rim Trail from Lava Point is the serious one of the three. It is the top end of the route that eventually drops into the main canyon at the Grotto, and walked from this end it starts high and goes down, which means the return is all uphill at altitude. As an out and back to a viewpoint it is superb and entirely permit free; as a through hike it becomes a shuttle problem and, if you camp, a wilderness permit again.
Keep reading
More of Virgin on The Local.
After dark
The dark sky
An ordinance, no certificate, and the darkest sky on this stretch of highway.
Read the guideMoving here
The valley or the mountain
The water connection, the flood zone, the propane and two very different purchases.
Read the guideThe shelf
Virgin, from a local
The town itself: the river bottom, the road up, the Pocketville years and the mountain.
Read the pageQuick answers
The west side, answered.
The bottom up route starts at the Left Fork trailhead on Kolob Terrace Road, the paved road that leaves State Route 9 in the middle of Virgin. From there the route drops into the canyon of the Left Fork of North Creek and works upstream to the formation and back the same way, around nine miles there and back, largely off trail, with wading and boulder hopping throughout.
Through Recreation.gov, and only through Recreation.gov. There is a seasonal lottery that takes applications between the first and the twenty fifth of a month for dates roughly four months ahead, with results near the end of that month, and a daily lottery closer to the date for whatever is left. Applying costs a small non refundable fee, and the permit is charged per person on top. Confirm the current daily cap and both fees at the source, because they have all changed.
Yes, three good ones. Northgate Peaks from the Wildcat Canyon trailhead is roughly four miles round trip on largely level ground to a lava slab viewpoint between two peaks. Wildcat Canyon Trail runs from the same parking along an old four wheel drive route. And the West Rim Trail from Lava Point is permit free as an out and back to a viewpoint, becoming a permit question only if you camp or walk it through to the main canyon.
Not for a day walk, but almost nobody does it as one comfortably. Hop Valley is the southern approach to La Verkin Creek and Kolob Arch, and as an overnight it requires a Zion wilderness permit for a specific site or zone, applied for through the park separately from the Subway lottery. Group size in the wilderness is capped at twelve, and the trail crosses private ranch ground with cattle on it under an easement.
No. The park is explicit that a site at Lava Point Campground cannot be included in the itinerary of a wilderness backpacking trip, which catches people planning the long traverse across Zion. Lava Point is six primitive sites with no water, reservable through Recreation.gov in recent seasons up to fourteen days ahead, and it is a destination in its own right rather than a link in a backcountry chain.
It is a canyon that drains high country miles above the trailhead, so the honest risk is water rather than rock. Check the park's flash flood potential rating for the day rather than the valley forecast, and make that decision before you leave the highway, because there is no signal up there to receive new information with. Beyond that it is a long off trail day with wading and route finding, and the most common problem is simply people running out of daylight on the way out.
The quiet side of Zion starts at a turning here.
Living in this valley means the west side of a national park is a fifteen minute drive rather than a trip, and that is a very specific kind of appeal. If it is your kind, I would rather show you the country than a listing sheet.