When I was 20 years old my parents took us to Zion National Park and it was awesome. I remember being awe stricken at the lookouts and loving the rocks and just everything about the place. It was a truly beautiful and magnificent spectacle of an area. When I returned at 32 though, I had a much different experience. Like much of my favorite places, Zion has become overcrowded, overrun, and oversaturated. There is only one fix for this and the NPS is unwilling to do it unfortunately. The only way to fix this problem is to rotate Parks in and out of the Park system. For five or ten years a place is designated a National Park and it’s a big to do and much hubbub before it’s designated a National Monument or even just BLM or National Forest Land for a few years. Much like a fallow field, it has time to heal and be less crowded before it’s redesigned an NP and you’ve got your puzzles, posters, etc… etc… Now though, there’s too much infrastructure everywhere outside of these parks and it’s getting worse. The little places outside Bryce and Zion and especially in Moab are becoming full of brand new hotels, resorts, and even neighborhoods. Our National Parks aren’t theme parks despite what too many people think. Then there’s the ticket system; It’s a nightmare and disorganized and people scalp the heck out of those at highly inflated prices. I know you came to this page looking for tips and pointers about Zion but all I have is get there before sunrise, get your stupid tickets to the trams and hikes and what have you on time, don't blast music on your hikes, don’t record social media videos, but most of all, avoid this place until I’m president and I introduce the rolling designations of our Nation’s Parks (I’m never running for President since I’m not insane).

That being said, here’s the least crowded area of the park, Kolob Canyon, named after the LDS Kolob of Heavenly Father’s place of home, I assume... There’s tons of hikes and hidden gems in this area that you should discover for yourself. Here are some sunset pictures against the beautiful red cliff walls that is the edge of the Colorado Plateau.