Zion National Park Blog

Brett Pelletier Photography - Zion National Park Gallery

Zion National Park in Utah is certainly one of my favorite places to visit. Only about a 4 hour drive from Salt Lake City along the Utah I-15 corridor, the park makes for a great 'long-weekend' trip for me. Zion is like an adult play-ground for outdoor enthusiasts of all types. The red rock canyon offers spectacular beauty for hiking, cycling, mountain-biking, rock climbing, canyoneering, plus some of the most picturesque landscape photography opportunities around. The real beauty of the whole place is that the best of all these activities happen behind the scenes of all the crowds, and for much of the time you see nobody, but your friends and a few other enthusiasts like yourself. One of the reasons for this is because of the permit system that is in place at the park. This system benefits both people that live close and far because you can either secure a permit months in advance for a planned trip or you can show up the day before and secure a permit for the next day. There are a limited number of permits available for both, and it depends on what you want to do. Permits are needed for almost everything so be sure you check ahead to see if you need one or not. On my latest 'birthday vacation' in early October I was able to secure a permit the day before for the Subway and even got one for Pine Creek to do that very day. For more information check out this site. Photography in Zion National Park is special. The uniqueness of the desert fauna and colorful sandstone with the opportunity to capture all four seasons really makes this place stand out among the rest. I've manged to capture Zion in the Fall a couple times and have some beautiful images of a few canyons in the peak of foliage color. Two of these are the Subway and the Zion Narrows. Other images in my gallery include a not so common view from near the top of Lady Mountain looking at Angels Landing in the sunlight. See my gallery for even more photos of Zion National Park and thanks for checking out my blog.