USA Canyon Overlook, Zion National Park

One of the coolest and still easy to get to spots in Zion National Park. It would help if you hiked from the parking lot (which is marked) for about 20 minutes and you got a breathtaking view.

You want to have the view in the morning or later towards the sunset depending on what you'll go for.

Requires a 1 mile/1.61 km R/T and 163 ft /50 m elevation gain hike. It’s a popular spot but there’s very limited parking available. If you want to get sunrise photos, you must find a parking spot very early or get very lucky. I parked about 45 minutes before sunrise and the small parking area was already half full. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to reach the overlook from the parking area. The parking area closest to the trailhead is just outside the Zion/Mount Carmel Tunnel on the right side of the road and can only be accessed from the eastbound lane. There’s room for 10 vehicles including one designated handicapped parking spot. Another parking area is located about 50 yards further east and has room for about 8 vehicles including one handicapped parking spot. That lot can technically be accessed from either direction but since the mile-long tunnel is almost 90 years old, it is very narrow which requires park rangers to frequently convert two way traffic to one way to accommodate oversized vehicles and large RVs. This results in vehicle queues that often block access to that parking area from eastbound traffic. There are very specific rules for vehicular traffic in the tunnel that can be found at the Zion National Park website.