Planning Your Time

What brings you to Utah's southwest will determine how best to plan your time. If you're here for Zion National Park and only have a few days, for example, you might choose to forego visiting Cedar City or St. George. No matter which part you visit, however, driving time will take up a fair number of your hours. Zion National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante experiences are more outdoorsy and potentially exerting than ambling about St. George's downtown walking tour or attending a Shakespeare play in Cedar City. No one town is a convenient base for exploring the entire region. For Zion National Park, choose Springdale or Hurricane; for St. George or Cedar City, the cities themselves are the best bases of exploration.