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| At the end of Riverside Walk, the trail enters the Virgin River and becomes The Narrows. |
Part 7 brought us from Kanab through Bryce Canyon, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, the Sand Caves, and Zion-Mount Carmel Highway to an overnight stop in St. George. Part 8 began the next morning with Shehzadi—our overlanding Toyota Tundra—pointed back through Hurricane and Springdale for a full day inside Zion National Park.
We first drove State Route 9 across Zion's east side to Checkerboard Mesa and the East Entrance, retraced the tunnel to the visitor center, parked Shehzadi, and transferred to the Zion Canyon shuttle. The road then gave way to a bus, the bus gave way to Riverside Walk, and the trail eventually gave way to the Virgin River. Zion had arranged the day's transport in descending order of dryness.
Zion National Park Overland — Post Summary
This 2024 day trip took Shehzadi from St. George through Hurricane and Springdale, across Zion-Mount Carmel Highway to Checkerboard Mesa and the East Entrance, then back to the Zion Canyon shuttle for Riverside Walk and a short wade into The Narrows before returning to St. George.
| What's Covered | |
| 🚙 | St. George to Zion via Hurricane and the South Entrance — Shehzadi's approach through Springdale |
| 🛣️ | Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, tunnel, and east-side drive — switchbacks, sandstone, and the historic tunnel |
| 🪨 | Checkerboard Mesa and the East Entrance — cross-beds, joints, viewpoints, and the turnaround |
| 🚌 | Zion Canyon shuttle and Court of the Patriarchs — visitor-center transfer and canyon stops |
| 🌿 | Temple of Sinawava and Riverside Walk — the paved river trail into the narrowing canyon |
| 🌊 | Wading into The Narrows — a short bottom-up walk in the Virgin River |
| 🐿️ | Rock squirrels and the return to St. George — wildlife mischief and the day's odometer |
From St. George, we drove Shehzadi northeast through Hurricane and Springdale, entered Zion at the South Entrance, crossed Zion-Mount Carmel Highway to the East Entrance, and returned through the tunnel to the Zion Canyon Visitor Center. We then left the truck in the parking lot, rode the shuttle to Temple of Sinawava, followed Riverside Walk, and stepped into the Virgin River at the beginning of The Narrows before returning to St. George.
Route: St. George → Hurricane → Springdale → Zion South Entrance → Zion-Mount Carmel Highway → Checkerboard Mesa → East Entrance → Zion Canyon Visitor Center → Court of the Patriarchs → Temple of Sinawava → Riverside Walk → The Narrows → St. George
Route at a Glance
- St. George to Zion via Hurricane and the South Entrance
- Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, Tunnel, and East-Side Drive
- Checkerboard Mesa and the East Entrance
- Zion Canyon Shuttle to Court of the Patriarchs
- Temple of Sinawava and Riverside Walk
- Wading into The Narrows
- Rock Squirrels and the Return to St. George
St. George to Zion via Hurricane and the South Entrance
St. George was still warming under the morning sun when we rolled out of the hotel parking lot. Shehzadi's route followed State Route 9 through Hurricane, whose name is pronounced “Her-ah-kun,” then continued past the subdivisions, farms, and red cliffs leading toward Springdale. The road had already carried us west the previous evening. This time it pointed directly into Zion.
Springdale tightened the route between buildings and sandstone walls before the park's South Entrance appeared. We joined the entrance lane, passed the sign, and entered a national park whose road system would determine the day's rhythm. Shehzadi could cross the east-side highway, but the main Zion Canyon road was operating under the seasonal shuttle system. One truck, one bus, and one river would each receive custody of us before dinner.
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| Zion National Park South Entrance, where Shehzadi entered from Springdale. |
The entrance photograph marked the day's practical boundary. Beyond it, State Route 9 climbed away from the Virgin River corridor toward switchbacks, Pine Creek Canyon, and the long tunnel through Navajo Sandstone. The cliffs narrowed the view while the road began spending elevation with the confidence of an agency account.
This was an out-and-back park day rather than a push toward the next overnight stop. We carried water, trail gear, and the expectation that Shehzadi would spend part of the afternoon parked while the shuttle took over. That split mattered: the truck opened Zion's east-side road, while the bus and our feet reached the canyon where ordinary private traffic stopped.
Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, Tunnel, and East-Side Drive
The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was built as part of a 25-mile road intended to connect Zion with the wider Grand Circle route. Construction ran from 1927 to 1930, and the highway opened in July 1930. The road climbs about 800 feet from the visitor-center area to the tunnel through switchbacks, masonry walls, bridges, and cuts that were designed for automobiles much smaller than many of today's traveling apartments.
The tunnel is 1.1 miles long. Crews first blasted gallery openings through the cliff, then used those windows for access, ventilation, light, and disposal of excavated rock while boring through the sandstone. Driving inside removed the wide canyon from view, except where the galleries briefly opened toward the cliffs. We crossed eastbound, continued through slickrock country, and later drove the whole arrangement in reverse. A historic engineering landmark is even more convincing when it has to let the same gray Tundra through twice.
The pale and red cliffs along the east-side road are dominated by Navajo Sandstone, formed from windblown dunes in a huge Early Jurassic desert roughly 180 to 200 million years ago. Diagonal cross-beds preserve the slopes of those moving dunes. Burial and mineral cement turned sand into rock; uplift and erosion later gave the old dune field a second career as cliffs.
Updated August 2026: New large-vehicle restrictions took effect on June 7, 2026. Vehicles exceeding 35 feet 9 inches in length, 7 feet 10 inches in width, 11 feet 4 inches in height, or 50,000 pounds cannot use the highway between Canyon Junction and the East Entrance; combined vehicles also face length limits. Shehzadi was well below those thresholds, but overlanders with trailers, roof equipment, or RV-scale ambitions should measure first and discover the rule before the tunnel does.
We passed the Canyon Overlook Trail parking area near the east tunnel entrance but did not turn the day into an undocumented hike. The trail leads to a viewpoint above Pine Creek Canyon; our route remained on the road, where the east side supplied more than enough sandstone without requiring us to climb onto every available ledge.
Checkerboard Mesa and the East Entrance
Checkerboard Mesa rose beside the highway as a rounded mass of pale Navajo Sandstone marked by intersecting lines. The sloping bands are cross-beds inherited from the ancient dunes. The steeper cuts are joints—later fractures in the rock—which weathering has widened. Freeze-thaw action can enlarge those openings, but it did not draft the entire grid from scratch. Geology prefers committees.
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| Checkerboard Mesa's horizontal cross-beds and vertical joints form its grid-like face. |
The first photograph showed the mesa itself: pale sandstone, dark vertical seams, slanting beds, and scattered pines along the base. The pattern becomes easier to read after the interpretive panel explains which lines belonged to the original dunes and which arrived after the sand had become stone.
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| The Checkerboard Mesa viewpoint's NPS interpretive panel. |
The panel also placed the formation inside the east-side ecosystem rather than treating it as decorative masonry. Desert bighorn sheep use this country, while the sandstone's broken surfaces hold pockets of soil and trees. The mesa looked bare from a distance; the closer view was busier and less interested in simple labels.
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| At the Checkerboard Mesa viewpoint along Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. |
We stopped long enough for photographs at the viewpoint, where the pullout collected cars, visitors, and a surprisingly orderly amount of roadside curiosity. The formation did not move. Everyone else rotated through the available parking spaces with varying degrees of geological patience.
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| The broad pullout at Checkerboard Mesa on Zion's east side. |
Continuing east, Shehzadi sat beneath cliffs that showed how quickly the road could shift scale. The truck was built for long distances and rough routes, yet the sandstone reduced it to a well-equipped punctuation mark.
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| Shehzadi below the sandstone cliffs on Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. |
Near Pine Creek on the return leg, another roadside stop brought the cliffs closer. We were heading west again, which meant the tunnel waited ahead and the East Entrance was now behind us. Reversing the route did not repeat the view; afternoon light had already begun editing the rock.
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| A roadside stop near Pine Creek on the return toward Zion Canyon. |
Watch: Zion National Park: South to East Gate Route 9 Zion-Mount Carmel Hwy / Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel
The video follows the road from the South Entrance to the East Entrance, including the tunnel and east-side bends. It preserves the route's changing scale better than a single photograph: canyon floor, switchbacks, darkness, gallery windows, slickrock, and open road arranged in one continuous piece of pavement.
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| The East Entrance turnaround before retracing State Route 9 through the tunnel. |
At the East Entrance, we turned around rather than continuing toward Mount Carmel Junction. The sign became the day's farthest point by road. Then Shehzadi retraced State Route 9 through Checkerboard Mesa country, the tunnel, and Pine Creek Canyon toward the visitor center.
Zion Canyon Shuttle to Court of the Patriarchs
Back near the South Entrance, we parked Shehzadi at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center and changed vehicles. During shuttle season, ordinary private vehicles cannot use Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, although Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and other park roads remain open to private traffic. The distinction matters. Zion did not ban cars from the park; it merely told them that the canyon had appointed a bus.
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| Parking Shehzadi at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center before boarding the shuttle. |
Updated August 2026: The park shuttle remains free and requires no ticket, permit, or reservation. Schedules change by season, and the ride from the visitor center to Temple of Sinawava takes about 45 minutes. The last shuttle is a deadline rather than a suggestion; missing it can leave a nine-mile walk back to the visitor center.
The shuttle moved north beneath cliffs while the Virgin River repeatedly appeared beside the road. Court of the Patriarchs was one of the clearest stops: three high sandstone masses named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with lower reddish ledges and slopes beneath the pale Navajo Sandstone walls. The names arrived through Euro-American park history; the rocks had been standing there without introductions for considerably longer.
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| Court of the Patriarchs from the shuttle-stop viewpoint. |
The viewpoint gave us the broad composition. The interpretive sign then supplied the labels, turning one wall of rock into a named family group with enough geological layers to make the family paperwork difficult.
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| The NPS panel identifies the named peaks above Zion Canyon. |
Farther along the route, the Grotto served as the usual access point for the West Rim Trail and Angels Landing. We remained on the shuttle itinerary. Updated August 2026: permits are required beyond Scout Lookout onto the Angels Landing chain section, while hikers can reach Scout Lookout without one. The permit manages the narrow ridge; it does not issue courage, footwear, or better judgment.
Weeping Rock also belonged to the shuttle corridor. We did not claim a hike there in 2024. Updated August 2026: the short Weeping Rock Trail and Shuttle Stop 7 reopened on September 5, 2025, after repairs following a 2023 rockfall. Hidden Canyon and the East Rim route from that trailhead remain closed, a reminder that canyon walls keep their own maintenance schedule.
Temple of Sinawava and Riverside Walk
Temple of Sinawava was the final shuttle stop and the point where the road ended for us. Restrooms, water, buses, and pavement formed the last tidy cluster before Riverside Walk followed the Virgin River upstream. The canyon walls drew closer, shade increased, and the river began dictating the direction.
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| Temple of Sinawava, the final Zion Canyon shuttle stop and Riverside Walk trailhead. |
Riverside Walk runs about one mile each way from Temple of Sinawava to the beginning of The Narrows. The trail is paved and relatively flat through its first half-mile, but “paved” does not mean uniformly level. The paving is irregular in places, and NPS accessibility measurements also record steep grades, cross slopes, sand, minor drop-offs, and a low overhanging-rock obstruction. Concrete had reached the canyon; perfection had missed the shuttle.
The Virgin River carried sediment over a rocky bed while cottonwoods and hanging vegetation used the narrow strip of water and soil. Upstream from Temple of Sinawava, the river cuts through Navajo Sandstone and creates the slot-canyon route called The Narrows. The waterway is both the sculptor and, once the pavement ends, the trail.
For most of Riverside Walk, we could keep the river beside us rather than under us. The trail moved through shade, passed interpretive exhibits, and repeatedly opened toward water between the walls. Families, day hikers, and Narrows-bound groups shared the same concrete approach, then separated by ambition at the river. The dry route ended at one precise point. Beyond it, footwear became hydrology equipment.
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| Where Riverside Walk ends and the bottom-up Narrows route begins. |
The second photograph marked that exact handoff. Behind us lay a paved walk with railings and signs. Ahead, hikers stepped into cold moving water over rounded rocks. Staying dry required turning around. We had not come that far to negotiate with socks.
Wading into The Narrows
The bottom-up Narrows route begins at the end of Riverside Walk and proceeds upstream in the Virgin River. It can last a few minutes or continue as far as Big Spring on a strenuous all-day outing. The separate top-down route from Chamberlain's Ranch is a 16-mile wilderness trip requiring a permit. Our version was deliberately shorter: step into the river, move upstream between the walls, absorb the scale, and turn back before a day trip developed an overnight personality.
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| The Virgin River is the route once the paved Riverside Walk ends. |
The footing was the main argument. Water moved around uneven stones, each one apparently selected by a committee devoted to ankles. The current was manageable during our short wade, but every step required attention. Canyon walls rose on both sides, reducing the sky to a strip and redirecting sound along the river.
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| A short bottom-up wade into The Narrows before turning back. |
We continued only far enough to experience the river route, not to claim the full Narrows hike. That distinction matters in a place where “a little farther” can expand into many miles of cold water, slippery rock, and a return journey against the clock.
The water was cold enough to settle every debate about whether we had truly entered the canyon. Sunlight reached the river in broken patches, brightening pale sandstone and leaving the tighter walls in shade. We paused for photographs, watched other hikers test their footing, and chose our turnaround before the short wade became a schedule. The river continued upstream without taking the decision personally.
Updated August 2026: the bottom-up route from Temple of Sinawava requires no wilderness permit, while the top-down through-hike does. The Narrows closes when the Virgin River exceeds 150 cubic feet per second or when the National Weather Service issues a Flash Flood Warning. Zion also warns of toxic cyanobacteria in the Virgin River: current guidance says not to submerge the head or drink river water. The canyon is beautiful, but it has never signed a contract to be convenient.
Rock Squirrels and the Return to St. George
On the walk back, a rock squirrel supplied the day's smallest engineering demonstration. We watched it work at a visitor's purse zipper in search of food. The animal had apparently completed an apprenticeship in luggage access and skipped the ethics module.
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| A rock squirrel near Riverside Walk, photographed after it investigated a visitor's purse. |
The photograph shows the squirrel on the ground beside the trail, not the zipper operation itself. The witnessed behavior remained the useful point: Zion's rock squirrels have learned to investigate bags, backpacks, and other containers. Feeding or touching wildlife is prohibited, and human food can make animals aggressive, dependent, ill, or dangerous to visitors. A closed bag is a request. Proper food storage is an answer.
We rode the shuttle back to the visitor center, collected Shehzadi, and drove through Springdale and Hurricane to St. George. The day had moved from truck to tunnel, shuttle to pavement, and pavement to river before reversing the whole chain. The return road felt ordinary only because Zion had recalibrated the definition.
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| Back in St. George, Shehzadi's odometer reached 9,563 miles—3,168 miles driven since Hyattsville. |
The odometer read 9,563 miles. Shehzadi had shown 9,441 miles at the end of Part 7, making this a 122-mile day. The flag-off reading in Hyattsville had been 6,395 miles, so the expedition had covered 3,168 miles since home. That was cumulative distance driven, not a claim that St. George had somehow moved 3,168 road miles from Maryland while we were inside the park.
Zion compressed the expedition's working method into one day. Shehzadi handled the road and the tunnel; the shuttle handled the restricted canyon; our feet handled the river. Each transfer brought us closer to the physical route, until the mapped line stopped being asphalt and began flowing around our boots.
Next Stop
Part 9 leaves St. George for Arizona, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the beginning of Nevada's Extra-Terrestrial Highway. It is the longest driving day so far in the series, but Death Valley still waits beyond that linked episode. Nevada prefers to distribute its weirdness over several installments.
Reference route map of The Vagabond Couple's 9,000-mile USA & Mexico overland roundtrip: Map-1 and Map-2.
- The Vagabond Couple and Shehzadi
