Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park are two of the most visited areas of the United States, even though only a few years ago they were both struggling for visitation. There was a point where opponents of the parks system were making a valid argument for cutting federal funding for parks and turning them over to state control due to sagging tourism numbers. It was difficult to make an argument that the federal government should be supplying funding for parks that were not being visited at a high rate, and in response the parks department created an advertising campaign illustrating the features of several southwestern parks for the public. The campaign heavily marketed the parks using television and magazine ads, and created a huge amount of success at raising awareness and boosting tourism numbers. The majority of the parks that benefited the most were in close proximity to a major city like Las Vegas or Salt Lake City due to the fact that they were near areas that had support of airline traffic. With most parks being a minimum of four hours drive from a major hub, people needed to be able to fly into a city as a starting point, and this created a situation where the parks closest to the cities received the lion’s share of the tourists.
The park that benefited the most from the marketing that was done by the parks department was Zion Canyon, being the closest park to Las Vegas. Because Las Vegas is already such a large tourist draw, millions of visitors decide to take a break form the city lights and visit one of the nearby parks during their trip. This has gone as far as to create a situation where Zion is having traffic issues, and congestion at some of the major stopping points. The parks department has gone as far as to try and alleviate congestion by encouraging tourists to use tour services like ours, taking individual cars off the road in favor of vans or buses that hold larger amounts of people. Another advantage is that our guides are very familiar with the areas, eliminating the slow downs of those who are less familiar.
Although we do have a private tour that visits Zion in a single day, we would suggest using the time to your advantage and going on our three day tour. This tour has multiple camping days in Zion and Bryce so as to allow us to maximize your exploration time and minimize driving time. We drive to Zion first, then from there to Bryce and on to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. This “tour loop” gets us the ability to only drive around 2 hours in between parks, as opposed to driving four straight hours to Bryce or the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. By using each park as a logical stop before moving on to the next, we provide our guests with multiple parks and experiences over a short period, while reducing congestion and giving a great experience at the same time.