Camping

Zion has three campgrounds, and reservations are required for them. There is no first-come night in a pullout. Camping or sleeping in parking lots is prohibited. Watchman, by the South Entrance, is open year-round and can be reserved up to six months ahead on Recreation.gov. South Campground, also by the South Entrance, closes seasonally and can be reserved up to 14 days ahead. Lava Point, on Kolob Terrace, closes seasonally, is typically open about May through September as weather allows, has no potable water, and must be reserved ahead, up to 14 days, because you cannot pay or reserve on site. From mid-March through late November the campgrounds are full almost every night, according to the camping page. An entrance pass is still required in addition to the campsite. Start at NPS campgrounds. Watchman: Recreation.gov. Lava Point: Recreation.gov. South Campground’s link is on the NPS camping page. We are not guessing a second campground ID.

Backpacking

Every overnight in the Zion Wilderness needs a wilderness permit, including if you are carrying overnight gear. An online reservation is not the permit. You pick the permit up in person at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center wilderness desk the day before or the day of the trip. The reservation holder has to be the person who picks it up. About half of backpacking campsites can be reserved on Recreation.gov in a rolling window. The backpacking page says online calendar reservations are available during a three-month time frame, and that leftover sites can be reserved until 5 p.m. Mountain Time the day before. The other sites are walk-in. A reservation does not mean the trail will be open. Book at Overnight Wilderness Permits and read backpacking permits.

Kolob Arch, a huge red sandstone arch, framed by trees in the Kolob Canyons backcountry of Zion National Park.
Kolob Arch, Zion National Park. Photo: NPS Photo / Rendall Seely, public domain (U.S. National Park Service work), via Wikimedia Commons.

Canyoneering

The fees page says canyoneering is one of the activities that needs a permit fee, along with overnight backpacking, overnight climbing, and hiking The Narrows or The Subway in the ways that page groups them. Bottom-up Narrows from the Temple of Sinawava, as far as Big Spring, does not need a permit. The 16-mile top-down Narrows does. The Subway does. Technical canyons that use ropes are not a walk-up hobby. Recreation.gov’s wilderness permit page says canyoneering permits and overnight Narrows permits live on separate pages from the general backpacking reservation, reached from the Zion permits menu. Use permits and reservations and Narrows permits rather than a process we would be inventing canyon by canyon. If a route is not clearly listed, do not assume it is open without a permit.

Climbing

Overnight climbing and bivouacs need a wilderness permit. The fees page names overnight climbing specifically, and Recreation.gov points overnight climbing permits to their own page, separate from a day hike. We did not find a rule that a simple daytime climb uses the Angels Landing lottery. Angels Landing is a hike permit, not a general climbing pass. Day-climb rules, closed routes, and seasonal raptor closures change. Read the park’s climbing information from the permits page and current conditions instead of assuming a wall is legal because it appears in a guidebook. We do not guide climbs.

Day hikes that do not need those permits still need an entrance pass: hiking, loadout, plan.