Zion Canyon National Park is one of the most popular destinations for tourists that want to explore the natural beauty of the American southwest. Aside from the dramatic and unique landscape, the reasoning behind the popularity probably has more to do with it’s location and proximity to Las Vegas than anything else. While Zion is certainly beautiful, all national parks have beautiful elements that will give visitors a totally unique and dramatic experience, and all national parks have hiking and exploring opportunities. When the “Find Your Park” advertising campaign began several years ago in order to increase tourism at national parks, Zion Canyon saw greater increases than all others in the area. It doesn’t take much detective work to understand why this was the case, because one of the major issues with regards to tourism at national parks is their proximity to major cities. Basically, you have to drive a long way to get to almost every national park from a starting point that is a city with an airport, and the only other way to plan a trip to them is to either drive for multiple days from your home location. For many that wish to see the unique elements of a specific national park, the plan involves flying into the closest city that has an airport which supports commercial traffic and using that city as the starting point for the drive. Because of the rules regarding development of the areas surrounding national parks, you can generally expect a minimum of a one-half day drive from the closest city.
Zion Canyon National Park is an exception to this rule, being located about 2.5 hours drive from Las Vegas, NV. This means that not only is the park located significantly closer to a major city that you can fly into, but that city is one of the leading tourist attractions on earth as well. Las Vegas is a perfect place to start your trip because there are more hotels and restaurants within almost any budget located within the city limits than just about everywhere else in the southwestern US. Combine the amounts of people who would simply use Las Vegas as the starting point for their national parks tours with the people who will take a one or two day trip to a nearby national park as a break from their Las Vegas vacation, and you get an increase in traffic to Zion Canyon that is far greater than other parks. Even aside from Zion being a great national park to experience, you are going to get a good amount of traffic from tourists who simply choose the most convenient national park to visit from Las Vegas itself.
No matter what the reasons for the increase in popularity of Zion as a tour destination, it is perfect to start your tour from Las Vegas as the central starting point. Bindlestiff Tours provides several tour packages of Zion that last from one-day to several days while visiting other parks as well. Check out our tour packages to find your perfect Zion tour.