What is inside

Four days planned hour by hour, then the reference pages you actually open once you are here.

Day 1 — Zion, the back way

The east entrance is the quiet half of the park. You come over the Mt Carmel Highway, reach Canyon Overlook before the crowds, and never touch the shuttle.

Day 2 — Bryce at sunrise

The amphitheatre fills with light from the rim down, then the long way home on Highway 12. Includes what to do instead if the forecast is flat.

Day 3 — In and around town

Coral Pink Sand Dunes before the sand gets too hot, Belly of the Dragon, the Moqui Sand Caves, and lunch you can walk to.

Bonus day — Grand Staircase

The Toadstools, Catstair Canyon and the Great Chamber. The quietest country in the guide and the least like anywhere else.

How far is everything, really

Twenty destinations sorted by real drive time from the front door, with the sand roads and 4WD sections marked.

Worth the planning

The Wave lottery, Peekaboo, White Pocket — what each one actually requires, and why staying in Kanab helps with one of them.

Straight out of the guide

The parts people tell us they wish they had known first.

Bryce sits at 8,000 feet. It is genuinely cold at dawn even in July, and every summer somebody arrives in shorts and lasts nine minutes.Day 2
Anything marked 4WD sits at the end of deep sand that regularly strands two-wheel-drive rental cars.How far is everything
Sixty-four people a day, and the daily lottery can only be entered from a phone inside a geofence that runs the Highway 89 corridor from Kanab to Page. Staying in town puts you inside it.The Wave
Rent a sandboard in town and wax the base properly. Unwaxed boards mostly just sit there.Day 3

Take it with you

Coverage disappears past the edge of town and stays gone for most of Grand Staircase. Download it before you leave the driveway, or print it and leave it in the glovebox.

Download the guide (PDF)

Keep planning

The rest of what we get asked, kept current on the site.

Permits & ReservationsWhat needs a lottery, what needs six dollars at the trailhead, and what needs nothing.More ItinerariesA full week, plus plans for when it is too hot or raining.Hiking & Slot CanyonsThe hikes you can just show up for, and honest desert safety.Mountain BikingIn-town rides, the Tilted Mesa network, and when the season actually works.

Everything in this guide, from one front door

Sleeps eight, private hot tub, full kitchen and a garage for the gear — with every trailhead in these pages inside ninety minutes.

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