Our 5 day adventure in Zion National Park was absolutely breathtaking! We hiked over 20 miles in 5 days, and I’m here to tell you all the “what to dos” and “what not to dos” for your next vacation!

Day 1 in Zion

We flew into Las Vegas on a Wednesday night, which is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes from Zion National Park Welcome Center. After that, we rented a car through Hertz Rent-A-Car, (it was our first time renting with Hertz, and one-thousand percent recommend doing so!) There was no hidden fees, our rental car was one of the best rental car’s we’ve ever had! For one night, we stayed at the Hilton in Vegas before heading out in the morning for Zion!

Day 2 in Zion

The drive to Zion was very scenic, and extremely easy (note the time change from Vegas to Zion – we almost missed our shuttle ride because of it)! Zion National Park in 5 Days…but would be 0 if we missed all of our shuttle times haha!

Once we arrived in Zion, we probably spent 40 minutes looking for a place to park. They offer shuttle services from a variety of parking spots, but we decided to walk about 10-15 minutes from where we ended up paying $30 to park for the day! When you arrive at the welcome center, you must purchase a national park pass, or if you have one, just present that!

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After entry, you then have to wait in line for a shuttle (at the time we went, we had advanced shuttle tickets, however they recently got rid of that requirement). For our first day’s hike of Zion National Park in 5 Days, we did the lower, middle, and upper Emerald Pools. The hike was about 4 miles in total, all extremely do-able. There was a large stretch of hiking through sand, and the temperatures were warm, but had great views. The pools themselves were not that spectacular to be honest, but we stopped along the river for lunch, and had a great day!

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Later in the afternoon, after the hike, and relaxing under the large tree, we checked out boots and poles for the narrows hike that we would be doing the next day. After that, we headed to the Wildflower Resort! I booked this place about a year in advance as I wanted a glamping tent, and they fill up extremely fast! Especially, since the resort just opened in 2020, I would book as soon as possible!

The resort itself was in the perfect location with sunrise and sunset views all over! There is a large gathering area, lawn games, camp fire spots, clean bathrooms, parking space, and they give you one bag of ice, and a smore’s package upon check-in! The glamping tent was beautiful! Sleeps up to 4 people, has great space, an a/c unit, and storage! Literally my only complaint was at night, the wind would blow the tent quite hard making it somewhat difficult to sleep – but that’s tenting after all!

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For dinner, we ate at the Stage Coach Grille about 12 minutes from resort!! HIGHLY recommend as the food was incredible, staff was excellent, and the atmosphere truly felt like you were eating with the Utah locals!

Day 3 in Zion

Rise and shine. And I mean early!! We woke up at 5am to get ready for a big hiking day! On our way into Zion Park, we grabbed breakfast at this cute little cafe. After about an hour wait for the shuttle, we started our 9 mile trek into the narrows! Because we were one of the first shuttles to the narrows starting point, we were only hiking with about 25 others (very spread out, walk and stop at your own pace!).

The first mile is all land and sidewalk before actually getting to any water! Once we were in the water, WOW was it beautiful! We were there at the end of May, and the water never reached above our waist. I would highly recommend checking the weather and water report as flash flooding can happen in seconds, and having the right gear on is key!

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About 3 miles in, I truly felt secluded and the views were incredible!! The hike is literally walking on rocks in the water for a large portion, and some narrow trails off to the side! At mile 4, there is a split where you can either keep going straight, or veer off to the right. We randomly chose to go to the right path, which lead us down some narrow-er path and ended with big boulders that you could not get through. To relax our legs a bit, we decided to have lunch there before heading back!

On the hike back, the hundreds, and I literally mean hundreds of people started piling in. If there’s anything I highly recommend, it’s getting there early and starting the hike as soon as possible to avoid the large crowds!

The narrows were my all time favorite part of the entire trip, and am sooo happy we got up super early to accomplish it! We got back to our resort around 3pm that afternoon to shower, nap and then head into town for snowcones! The resort has a food truck that comes at night, so we ate that for supper and watched the sunset over the rocks!

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Day 4 in Zion

Once again, we woke up extremely early (or so we thought) to head to the shuttle at the welcome center! To our surprise, and maybe because it was a Saturday, the shuttle line was 2.5 hours! We waited it out, ate our breakfast in line, and then got off at stop #5! Today our plan was to hike Angel’s landing. Once we got off the shuttle, they told us the line for Angel’s landing was 4.5 hours long…but we could hike another trail up to it if we wanted! Because we literally would have been waiting for 7 hours total, we decided to hike the other route!

Now, if I had to do the trip all over again, I probably would have done this hike on day one! Because our legs were pretty sore from the 9 miles the day before, this 8 mile hike was brutal!! The incline was intense, and switchbacks were CRAZY!! However, the views were ABSOLUTELY incredible!! We made it up the the cliff part of angel’s landing in about 2 hours! Bringing water and snacks is a must! Also hiking shoes are without a doubt a need! The pictures don’t even do this place justice!

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After the long trek back down, we traveled to the town of Hurricane and ate at the Main Street Cafe, which had cute outdoor dining and yummy sandwiches! Later, we checked into our awesome airbnb! I am absolutely obsessed with airbnb’s so finding this gem was a score!! That night we relaxed under the stars in the hot tub, grabbed pizza from the Stone Pizza place and slept great!

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Day 5 in Zion

For once, we slept in and had breakfast at the Rooster Cafe – a local favorite! We then drove to Fire Valley State Park! It was about 105 degrees this day, which was nothing like Wisconsin hahah! We tried to do a few hikes, but mainly stayed in the air conditioned car and drove to see the views! A fairly easy off the path road, for a pit-stop before heading back to the airport!

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In all, Zion is breathtaking. We accomplished Zion National Park in 5 Days, and truly think it was the perfect amount of time. My favorite part was glamping at the Wildflower Resort and hiking the Narrows! One of the best hikes in the world, and truly does not disappoint! Watch 30 second video here of all the fun we had! Comment below your recommendations for Zion, and I’d love to make another trip out in the future! Read more about our travels here!