Most Zion visitors never make it to Kolob Canyons. The entrance sits off Interstate 15, a separate gate from the main canyon. The payoff for driving there is Kolob Arch, one of the largest freestanding arches on Earth. It spans 287 feet and can only be reached by trail. There is no roadside pullout for this one. Getting close requires a real hike, and a real decision about whether to do it in a day or turn it into an overnight trip.
The Route and the Approach
- Distance: 14 miles round trip from Lee Pass Trailhead.
- Elevation change: roughly 1,037 feet over the full route.
- Trailhead: Lee Pass, on Kolob Canyons Road, about 5 miles from the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center.
- Difficulty: strenuous as a day hike, moderate paced over two days as a backpack.
- Permit: none required for a day hike; a wilderness permit is required for any overnight stay.
The trail starts at Lee Pass and drops into Timber Creek. From there it follows La Verkin Creek for most of its length. Around the seven-mile mark, a signed spur trail branches off toward a viewpoint. That viewpoint, not the base of the arch, is the real destination. The Park Service closed direct access to the arch's base years ago to protect it from erosion. The spur trail view is the endpoint every hiker on this route actually reaches.
Kolob Canyons has its own entrance station off Interstate 15, roughly 40 minutes north of Springdale by car. The standard Zion park pass covers it, so there is no separate fee to pay at the gate. The scenic drive itself runs about five miles one way, ending at Lee Pass. Winter storms occasionally close this road for snow and ice. Anyone planning a cold-season trip should check current conditions before making the drive. This entrance sees a fraction of the traffic that backs up at the main south entrance in Springdale. That lighter traffic is part of why the whole area feels different from the rest of the park.
Day Hike or Overnight: The Real Tradeoff
Fourteen miles with 1,037 feet of elevation change makes for a long single day. Summer heat regularly tops 100 degrees on the trail's more exposed stretches, which raises the stakes further. Most of the route runs through canyon bottom with decent tree cover, and that cover helps. Even so, the mileage alone makes an early start non-negotiable for anyone attempting this as a day trip. Hikers who start after 9 a.m. in warmer months are cutting it close on both heat and daylight.
Turning the trip into an overnight backpack solves the mileage problem outright. It also adds real time at La Verkin Creek in the evening and early morning. By then the day-trip crowd has thinned out, and that crowd drops off fast past mile three.
There are 10 backcountry campsites between Lee Pass and the Kolob Arch area, plus three more upstream past the junction with the Hop Valley Trail. Sites closer to the creek fill first, especially on spring and fall weekends. Sites set back among the ponderosa pines trade a shorter water walk for more shade and quiet. Hikers who want a full two-day rhythm rather than a single long push should plan on this option from the start. It works better as the primary plan than as a fallback.
Permits, Water, and Getting There
No permit is required to day hike the full route out to the viewpoint. Anyone planning to camp overnight needs a wilderness permit instead. That permit runs a $20 non-refundable application fee. A second fee of $7 per person per night applies on top of that, and this second fee is refundable if the trip falls through. Permits are reserved through recreation.gov ahead of time. The physical permit still has to be picked up in person at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center's Wilderness Desk. Pickup happens either the day before the trip or the morning of.
That pickup requirement catches people off guard. The Zion Canyon Visitor Center sits in the main canyon, a genuine drive from the Kolob Canyons entrance where this trail actually starts. Anyone planning an overnight trip should budget real time for that stop before heading north to Lee Pass. It is not a quick detour to fit in on the way, especially with an early trailhead start already on the schedule.
La Verkin Creek itself is the only water source along the entire route. It runs reliably most of the year, fed by snowmelt and springs higher in the Kolob Terrace. Every hiker still needs a real filter or treatment method, not just an empty bottle and good intentions. There is no potable water at Lee Pass Trailhead or anywhere else along the trail, so planning water strategy matters as much as planning mileage.
What the Hike Actually Feels Like
The first stretch from Lee Pass climbs briefly before dropping into Timber Creek. That short climb surprises hikers who expect the whole trail to run downhill toward the canyon floor from the start. Once the trail meets La Verkin Creek, the terrain settles into a long, mostly gentle descent through cottonwood and ponderosa pine. The creek stays in view or earshot for long stretches of the middle miles. This section is where the real solitude shows up. Kolob Canyons already pulls a fraction of the visitors that Zion Canyon does, and this trail pulls a fraction of those visitors again.
The spur trail at mile seven climbs slightly away from the main creek path toward the viewpoint. From there, Kolob Arch is visible across the canyon, a genuine payoff after seven miles, even without standing directly beneath it. Hikers doing this as a day trip typically eat lunch at the viewpoint and turn around right away. The return trip covers the same seven miles. The same elevation change now works against tired legs on the way back, which is worth planning around rather than discovering at mile twelve.
This route rewards hikers who have already done Zion Canyon's better-known trails and want something quieter. It is not a good first hike in the park. The mileage and the lack of a paved or heavily trafficked trail rule that out on their own. The drive to a separate entrance adds another reason it fits poorly into a single-day itinerary.
Repeat visitors comfortable with a full-day trail effort get more out of it. So do backpackers looking for a real overnight in Zion's wilderness zones. This hike delivers real distance from other people, something increasingly rare inside the park's more famous canyon. It also delivers a genuinely rare geologic feature waiting at the end of that distance, one most Zion visitors will never see in person. For anyone who has already checked the park's famous trails off the list, that combination is worth the extra drive to a second entrance station.
Anyone weighing this hike against Zion Canyon's more accessible trails should look at the Kolob Canyons overview first. It makes the broader case for visiting this side of the park. The general backcountry permit guide covers the full wilderness permit process beyond this one trail, for anyone planning a different overnight route in Zion's backcountry.
