Early Winter Camping In Zion National Park….A Primer

Zion National Park in Utah is a jewel of the National Park System for a reason….it’s unique and has jaw dropping beauty.  But these days, spending more than a day trip in the park will take a little work ahead of time.  This is where trip/vacation pre-planning is so important and will pay dividends during your trip.

So we decided we wanted to go back to Zion National Park and do some canyoneering up through “The Narrows”….labeled one of the 10 coolest hikes in the United States.  Then we decided we wanted to go during a cooler season but also when there would be less flow (water) in the Narrows.  We already knew that 2025 wasn’t a huge snow year so far in Zion, so we hoped there would be less flow in the Narrows for our hike.  We picked late November (Thanksgiving/Thanksgiving weekend) to head to Zion and camp…thinking it would be less crowded.

1. Reservations/Reservations/Reservations:  If you have ever read my travel posts about our National Parks visits, you might start picking up on a theme lately….National Parks are getting more and more crowded and reservations waaaay beforehand are important if you want to get in and stay.

So in our case, we made a reservation in April of 2025 for a camp site at Watchman in late November.  This would put our trip through the Thanksgiving Holidays but we also had to work within the Thanksgiving vacation schedule for our kids school and various work schedules.  While we were in Zion in November of 25, the South Campground just above the Visitor Center was shut down for a complete overhaul, so there were lots less campsites available than usual (I think).  Needless to say, Watchman was packed and without a reservation you were not getting a campsite…much less a parking spot.

Dry Suit Reservations:  I also need to put in a word about reservations for dry suits (for the Narrows).  We didn’t reserve suits for the Narrows during this November “off-season” but the folks told us they sell out most every day in the spring and summer…so think through a reservation if you are going up there during the spring or summer season.

2. Gear Checks:  Yeah, what can I say about this….since I should be flogged for my own failure to check things before we went up there.  Needless to say….check the camping gear, propane, water etc before you get up there.  The town outside of Zion has a couple really good gear stores and there’s food shopping, but check stuff anyways before you get there.

3. Prep for the crowds:  If you are like me, you take every opportunity to get outdoors, forest bathe and find some sense of how small we are compared to the granite monoliths in the National Parks.  But more and more, it seems like there are ALOT of people in the National Parks during every season….so there’s not really “off-seasons” anymore.  I would suggest just mentally preparing yourself to deal with people….especially since Zion is immensely popular but has limited camp sites and only one hotel in the park.

4. Charging:  Unlike Yosemite or other parks we’ve been to, Zion only has a few chargers in the Visitor Center parking lot and only in that one spot in the park.  The hotel also has one charger, but it seems to stay busy with cars just parked there.  There was no visible charging just outside of Zion either.

5. Watchman:  Watchman was the only campground open while we were there.  The “South” Campground might be done and open by now…I’m not sure.  But my point is this….if you want to camp here…jump on reservations sooner than later.  I would not chance driving into Zion and expect to find any first-serve camping.  But the walk-in campsites were not that busy while we were there.

6. Prepare to shuttle:  Most of the great stuff to look at in Zion is beyond a gate closed to through traffic, so I suggest just jumping on a shuttle at the Visitors Center and prepare to be wowed as you drive up through the canyon.  But, you can drive if you continue up Highway 9 through the tunnels to the Canyon Overlook and Canyon Overlook Trail.  We didn’t stop at that location as there were no parking spaces available at all and it would have been dangerous to park but we did go up a ways…..turn around and come back.  On the way back we found parking at other spots and got some great photos.

So this is the primer to start my camping series about our winter trip to Zion National Park…including our canyoneering up the Narrows.  Although we had some equipment challenges (which we’ll detail in the posts), we eventually figured those out or ignored them.  We were determined to have a great Thanksgiving Day, which we did.  

We are a small website/blog focused on travel with kids, which we do at every opportunity.  Thanks for reading.