Zion

There is no coast anywhere near, and nobody comes here to swim. The real swimming is at the reservoirs around Hurricane, about half an hour from the park, where Sand Hollow has red-sand shores and water warm enough from June to September. Quail Creek nearby is smaller and rockier.

Inside Zion the Virgin River is for wading and cooling off rather than swimming. It runs cold, and after storms it carries silt and can flood without warning. Most visitors cool off in the hotel pool in Springdale or St. George.

Eating here is fuel for hiking. Springdale, the town at the park gate, has a short main road of casual places doing burgers, pizza, Mexican and Southwestern dishes, a few cafés that open early for the trailhead crowd, and one or two more ambitious dining rooms with canyon views. St. George, about an hour away, has more choice but leans heavily on chains.

There is no regional cuisine to seek out, and Utah's strict liquor rules make drinking low-key. Some restaurants serve beer and wine only with food, and a long evening over drinks is uncommon. Self-catering from a supermarket in Hurricane or St. George is the norm for many visitors.

Here the landscape is the main sight, and the human story is small beside it. Inside the park, the Zion Human History Museum tells the story of the Southern Paiute and of the Mormon settlers who named the canyon. A few rock-art panels survive along the canyon. The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, completed in 1930, runs through the cliff and has open galleries cut into the rock face. Zion Lodge, on the scenic drive, was rebuilt after a fire in 1966 in the rustic style of the park's early buildings.

Outside the park, Grafton near Rockville is a much-photographed ghost town with adobe houses and an old cemetery. St. George has the white pioneer temple and tabernacle, Brigham Young's winter home and a well-presented dinosaur trackway site. These fill a few hours, not days, and a visitor looking for architecture and museums will find little here.

Nightlife barely exists. Days start before sunrise to beat the heat and the crowds, and Springdale goes quiet soon after dinner, with a couple of brewpub-style places and patios as the only places to have a drink. St. George has a few bars but nothing that adds up to a night out. The evening's entertainment is the sky. The desert air makes for very dark, starry nights.

This is canyon country at its most dramatic. Sheer walls of red and cream sandstone rise up to 600m above the Virgin River, and the classic hikes are known worldwide. The Narrows means wading upstream between walls a few metres apart. Angels Landing climbs a knife-edge ridge on chains, and Observation Point looks down on the whole canyon. Kolob Canyons in the quieter northwest corner and the slickrock plateau along the east side give a different, emptier landscape. Canyoneering through slot canyons is a speciality.

Bryce Canyon's hoodoos are about two hours away, and Snow Canyon near St. George and the Grand Staircase add more. Spring and autumn are ideal. Summer brings heat above 38°C on exposed trails and the risk of flash floods, and winter brings quiet, sometimes snowy canyons.

The big outings from here are other parks, and those are about landscape rather than places. For towns and history the list is short. St. George, about an hour away, has a pioneer-era centre. Cedar City, a little further north, has a frontier-history museum and its summer theatre. Kanab, about an hour east, keeps its Western film-set heritage, and Pipe Spring National Monument on the Arizona border is a preserved Mormon ranch fort with a Paiute history exhibit. Silver Reef is a former mining town near Leeds.

Las Vegas is about two and a half hours away, which is too far for an easy day. Most visitors spend their spare days in other canyons instead.

Zion is a traditional family road-trip stop, and it works well with children who like being outdoors. The free shuttle saves parking battles. The flat Pa'rus Trail can be cycled, and the Riverside Walk ends where children can paddle in the river at the mouth of the Narrows. The ranger programmes and the visitor centre exhibits keep younger visitors busy.

The famous hikes are another matter. Angels Landing and other cliff-edge routes are no place for small children, and midsummer heat makes exposed trails punishing by midday. Beyond the park there is little built for children apart from the reservoirs around Hurricane and the dinosaur tracks in St. George. Spring and autumn are much easier.

For the main canyon, getting around is simple. In the busy months private cars are kept off the scenic drive, and a free park shuttle runs from the visitor centre to the Temple of Sinawava, stopping at each trailhead. A second free shuttle links Springdale's hotels to the park entrance, so a visitor staying in town can leave the car parked.

Everything else needs a car, though the roads are good and the distances short. Reaching the east side through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel, Kolob Canyons, St. George or Bryce all means driving. The nearest big airport is Las Vegas, about two and a half hours away, with a smaller one at St. George. Parking near the park entrance fills early on busy days.

Shopping here is practical. Springdale has outdoor outfitters that rent canyoneering gear and dry suits for the Narrows, souvenir shops, and a handful of galleries selling landscape photography, Southwestern art and Native American jewellery and pottery. St. George adds standard malls and outlet stores. Nobody comes here to shop.

Staying at the park gate costs a lot in season. Springdale's lodges and motels are in demand from spring to autumn, and eating out carries normal American prices plus tip. Once a visitor is here, the costs are low. Park entry covers several days, the shuttles are free, and the main activity, hiking, costs nothing.

The usual way to save is to stay in Hurricane or St. George, half an hour to an hour away, where chain motels and supermarkets bring daily costs down a good deal. Winter is noticeably cheaper everywhere. Guided canyoneering and car hire are the main added expenses.

Two summer theatre seasons are better than a visitor might expect here. The Tuacahn amphitheatre, set against red cliffs near Ivins, outside St. George, stages full-scale Broadway musicals outdoors through the warm months. The Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, about an hour north of the park, runs a long summer-to-autumn repertory of Shakespeare and other plays and has a strong reputation among American regional theatres.

Springdale has a small outdoor amphitheatre under the canyon walls for summer concerts and films. Outside these seasons there is very little, and no regular live-music scene to go out for.

There is no bathing tradition here. The rest on offer is the desert's quiet and a few good spas. Around Ivins, just outside St. George, a handful of destination spa resorts sit among red rock and offer guided hikes, yoga and treatments, and some visitors book them for a restful stay. In Springdale, several lodges have spas and pools with canyon views.

The park itself is demanding and often crowded, so restoring calm means quiet mornings and evenings. Sunsets on the canyon walls and very dark night skies help, and spring and autumn are the gentlest seasons.