Zion National Park - Springdale, UT

The Pa’rus trail is a light trail in and around the visitor center. They can take the bus to go further in and explore for themselves along the valley floor.

Most of trails go up from the valley floor and back down. We did Emerald Pools which is pretty typical for Zion trails. It had very strenuous stretches going up to the pools but is super easy coming back down.

The trail to the Northgate Peaks overlook is long but it’s flat the whole way. 4 mi round trip. Definitely something you all could do together. Quiet, not a lot of people up that way. Beautiful drive up to that part of the park.

End point of Northgate Peaks:


Trail is like this pretty much the whole way:

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We’ll be going in mid October so hopefully the crowds are down a good bit.

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Should be a great time weather-wise, but the narrows will be super cold. The water is cold in August. Bring a wetsuit

We went in October a few years ago. It was cold in the mornings, but warmed up quickly. Water wasn't definitely cold, but we just rented the boots and sticks. It wasn't bad.

The way the trip is working out we’ll be getting there on Friday, spending all of Saturday and leaving Sunday. We’re only hitting the Grand Canyon passing through on a day prior. Tried timing the trip so that flights were cheaper

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We did Emerald Pools which is pretty typical for Zion trails. It had very strenuous stretches going up to the pools but is super easy coming back down.

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Only the Upper Emerald Pools has a bit of an uphill stretch to get the actual pool. The middle and lower and pretty easy. There is a steep, but very short, stair section at the lower pool to get you to where the overhang is, so not sure if that's doable or not. Kayenta trail to Middle Emerald Pools should be doable if your parents are in decent shape.

The riverside walk is very easy. That gets you to the start of the narrows and is a nice, flat hike along the river.

Another hike you and you're wife may want to consider is up to Scout Lookout and farther up the west rim trail. Scout Lookout is where Angels Landing starts, but if you don't want to do that(no shame in that) you can continue up the west rim trail for amazing views down the canyon behind Angels Landing. I still haven't done the narrows though, so you really can't beat that. I'll get back there for it one day.

If you're going on a weekend, you're probably going to want to get to the visitors center for the bus no later than 8 am. By 8:30-9 the line will likely be 1+ hours for the bus. We were there first week of April this year for spring break(happened to be spring break for most of Utah too) and made the mistake of getting there at about 10 am and the line was almost 2 hours long. We did Watchman's trail, which is right there at the entrance and it's a really good hike. You have a great view up the canyon at the top. We did Bryce the next day and then got back to Zion the day after at 7:30 and had about a 10 minute wait for the bus to get up into the canyon.

And if there's any way you can make the drive in from the east from hwy 9, do that. Coming out of that tunnel and down into that section of the canyon is breathtaking.

More great info! I appreciate it!

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And if there's any way you can make the drive in from the east from hwy 9, do that. Coming out of that tunnel and down into that section of the canyon is breathtaking.

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We will actually. We’ll be coming in from Page.

Dualed: where are you flying into?

Awesome. I recommend visiting the Grand Canyon at Devil’s View. It’s less crowded and the views are spectacular there. There’s this really cool Watchtower where you can get some elevated views. There’s a Visitor Center and market there. You’ll only need a couple of hours then head back out to venture up to Zion.

Take US 89 north out of Flagstaff. You’ll head east toward the Canyon on AZ 64. Head back out that way to take 89 north into Utah.

We found this way by total accident and it made our Grand Canyon visit so much better.

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the Narrows

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My favorite hike of all-time. We did the bottom-up and it took us all day. Just be aware that you will be freezing cold in the morning no matter the time of year. We went in late May and the cold water combined with the shade of canyon had us shivering until around 11:00 when the sun gets overhead. There were hundreds of people at the start of the hike and probably a dozen or so made it to the end in the 30 minutes or so that we sat at trails end. Most turn around before Wallstreet.

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Phoenix to Sedona to Page to Zion to Las Vegas.

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That's going to be a beautiful trip. I've driven all of that, just not on one trip. That's going to be really nice for your folks to see so much of the beautiful west.