Zion National Park • Go around. I’m retired.
That’s the advice the rear bumper sticker on Denver residents George and Jean Martinez’s motorhome gives to drivers trailing their large Newmar rig. “Go around” will also be what Zion National Park tells drivers of large RVs, travel trailers and tour buses in the near future.
Starting in mid-2026, Zion National Park will no longer allow oversized vehicles to travel the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, the scenic byway that bisects southern Utah’s top tourist draw. Instead, drivers of all vehicles heavier than 50,000 pounds, longer than 35 feet 9 inches, taller than 11 feet 4 inches, or wider than 7 feet 10 inches will be rerouted to roads around the park.
“I hate being given the runaround,” George Martinez quipped. “This is Jean’s favorite national park and we come here every other year. We especially like driving through Zion’s back entrance, past Checkerboard Mesa and through Zion Tunnel to get to the main part of the park. It’s an awesome drive.”
As scenic as the drive is, park officials say it is increasingly crowded and unsafe. When the historic highway and accompanying tunnel were opened in 1930, a little more than 55,000 visitors toured Zion each year. The park now attracts about 5 million visitors per year. Moreover, the vehicles that traverse the park are often too large and heavy for the road.
Tight turns, traffic bottlenecks
Recent studies show many vehicles on Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway exceed 50,000 pounds, the weight limit on park bridges. In addition, engineers have identified 18 locations on the road where the turning radius is too tight to accommodate long vehicles. Currently, many oversized vehicles negotiating the highway’s many switchbacks cross the center median and pose a safety risk to oncoming traffic.
Further exacerbating matters is the mile-long Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel which isn’t wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic with large rigs. Vehicles taller than 13 feet 1 inch won’t fit in the tunnel while those wider than 7 feet 10 inches and taller than 11 feet 4 inches require a tunnel escort. As a result, the tunnel often functions as a one-way road as oversized vehicles are escorted through, while traffic bottlenecks on the opposite end result in substantial delays.
“These changes reflect months of discussions to find the best way forward to manage the historic Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway and increase driver safety,” Jeff Bradybaugh, Zion National Park Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh stated in a news release. “Our goal is to protect drivers, meet modern safety standards and ensure the integrity of the road and tunnels so that we continue to enjoy scenic drives on the historic Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway.”
By park officials’ reckoning, the new rules will require visitors from Bryce Canyon National Park to access Zion’s south entrance via state Route 20 and Interstate 15, adding 63 miles and 42 minutes to the current route through Carmel Junction and the park’s back entrance. Visitors from the Grand Canyon North Rim will have to travel State Route 59 to access Zion’s south entrance, 23 miles or 10 minutes longer than the existing route.
Driving tourists elsewhere?
Springdale Mayor Barbara Bruno doesn’t foresee many negative impacts on the town that serves as the gateway to Zion. She said local business owners’ reaction to the upcoming change has been mixed but a majority have expressed support.
“Since [the change] is based on safety, I wholeheartedly agree with the park’s decision,” Bruno said. “I also appreciate having been notified ahead of time.”
So do officials with LeBus, a Salt Lake City charter bus company that works with tour operators to ferry tourists to national parks in Utah and throughout the West. That said, LeBus general manager Bryan Copyak opposes the oversized-vehicle ban, especially since most of the 40-plus motorcoaches the company operates in Zion and other national parks each day during the summer exceed the Zion-Mt. Carmel length restrictions.
Copyak said rerouting buses and lengthening tours drive up costs, thus encouraging would-be vacationers to look elsewhere. He recently saw an ad for a seven-day excursion to Italy that included airfare that was cheaper than the packages Zion tour operators are able to offer.
“The more we diminish the tours we offer and the higher the costs go up, we could soon be sitting around with nothing to do because we don’t have any guests taking the tours,” Copyak said.
Even though they will be banned from the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway in two years, oversized-vehicle owners can still park their rigs in Springdale or at the main visitors center near Zion’s south entrance and take an electric shuttle to tour Zion Canyon, which is closed to private vehicles most of the year.
As for the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, the Martinezes are planning a workaround. They plan to buy a used Jeep to tow behind their motorhome. The couple can then park their coach at a nearby resort and use the Jeep to get around on the main highway.
Conversely, Ivins resident Dan Gustavson and his family own a 36-foot, fifth-wheel Durango and don’t plan to visit Zion very often despite their proximity to the park.
“We hear the traffic is so horrendous going through the park that we avoid it,” he said.
