Utah
Zion to Bryce
About this adventure route
Two parks, eighty-five miles apart, that look nothing alike. Zion is a canyon you stand at the bottom of; Bryce is an amphitheater you stand at the top of, four thousand feet higher. The connection between them is the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, a 1930 road that switchbacks out of the canyon and runs through a mile-long tunnel bored through the sandstone.
Zion Canyon out through the Mount Carmel tunnel and up onto the Paunsaugunt Plateau at Bryce.
Highlights
What earns the trip
- The Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel, 1.1 miles through solid rock with gallery windows
- Checkerboard Mesa on the east side of Zion
- Sunrise Point at Bryce, over the densest hoodoo amphitheater anywhere
- A four thousand foot elevation gain between the two parks changes the ecology entirely
Stops
- 1
Zion Canyon Visitor Center
Shuttle hub at the south entrance.
- 2
Mount Carmel Junction
East of the tunnel, where the route turns north.
- 3
Bryce Canyon Sunrise Point
Rim overlook at roughly 8,000 feet.
When to go
Best time to go
April through June and September through October. Bryce sits above 8,000 feet and gets real winter.
Planner estimate for the mapped line: 5h 44m
Before you go
Know before you go
- Oversized vehicles need a tunnel permit and a traffic escort through the Mount Carmel tunnel.
- Zion Canyon itself is shuttle-only for most of the year. Private vehicles cannot drive the scenic drive.
- Bryce is 20 to 30 degrees colder than Zion on the same day. Pack for both.
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