A 4-Day Utah Parks Itinerary from Las Vegas: Zion, Bryce, Kanab and Page

Four days is a tight but workable window for stitching together Utah’s two best-known national parks with the slot canyon country around Kanab and the Navajo Nation land around Page. This route does not try to do everything — it picks one strong anchor per day, keeps driving legs under three hours, and treats Antelope Canyon as the fixed point everything else is built around, because it is the one booking that cannot be improvised on arrival.

Why this route, and what it leaves out

This itinerary covers Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, the Kanab slot canyons, and Antelope Canyon and Page in a single loop out of Las Vegas. It does not reach Monument Valley or the Grand Canyon’s South Rim — both are further east and south, and adding either would turn this into a 6- or 7-day trip. Anyone wanting the fuller version should look at the Grand Circle 3-day itinerary or a longer loop rather than trying to force extra stops into these four days.

The pacing here assumes a rental car, two adults sharing the driving, and a willingness to start each morning early — sunrise and mid-morning are also when Utah’s parks are least crowded and least hot in summer.

Best time of year for this route

Spring (April-May) and fall (September-October) are the most comfortable windows for this loop: daytime highs at Zion and along the Kanab-Page stretch stay manageable, Bryce’s higher elevation avoids the harshest winter driving, and Antelope Canyon tour operators run close to a full schedule. Summer works too and is when demand — and prices for Antelope Canyon slots and Springdale hotel rooms — peaks hardest, so booking early matters even more. Midday heat in the lower-elevation stretches around Page and Kanab can be intense from June through August, which is another reason to front-load hiking and outdoor stops for early morning.

Winter is workable but changes the plan: Bryce Canyon’s rim sits above 8,000 feet and regularly sees snow and icy roads from late November through March, so building in extra drive time between Bryce and Kanab is wise, and tire chains or a vehicle rated for winter conditions are worth checking before pickup. Antelope Canyon still runs guided tours year-round, though winter’s lower sun angle means the famous light beams inside Upper Antelope Canyon are largely a summer phenomenon — a detail worth knowing before choosing between Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon for this trip.

Day 1: Las Vegas to Zion (about 2 hours 45 minutes)

Leave Las Vegas in the morning — Zion is roughly 160 miles from the Strip, and the direct route via I-15 typically runs about 2.5 to 3 hours depending on traffic through the Virgin River Gorge. Fill up on gas before leaving; prices climb noticeably once past St. George.

Base for the night is Springdale, the small town sitting directly at Zion’s south entrance. Springdale has no real competitor for convenience: it is walkable to the park’s shuttle system, and staying there instead of St. George saves a 45-minute round trip each morning of the visit.

Arrive early enough in the afternoon to do a short, low-effort hike — the Riverside Walk or Weeping Rock area — before the light drops, and save the demanding hikes for a full day 2. Book Zion lodging well ahead: Springdale’s room count is small relative to demand, especially April through October.

Clock check: Las Vegas runs on Pacific Time; the moment the drive crosses into Arizona and then Utah near the Virgin River Gorge, the clock moves to Mountain Time. Depending on the season, that is a 1-hour jump — reset watches and phones on arrival so the next morning’s shuttle times line up.

Day 2: Zion in the morning, Bryce Canyon by evening (about 2 hours between them)

Zion gets one full day here, and the single hike this itinerary recommends without reservation risk is The Narrows, hiked bottom-up from the Riverside Walk trailhead. Wading upstream in the Virgin River requires no permit for a bottom-up day hike (unlike the top-down through-hike, which does), and it delivers the canyon’s signature narrow, walled-in scenery without a lottery. See the Narrows hiking guide for footwear and water-level notes before setting out — canyon closures happen after heavy rain and flash flood risk is real.

For travelers who want to try for more, Zion’s other marquee hike is Angels Landing, but it now runs on a permit lottery (day-before and seasonal advance lotteries), and there is no way to guarantee a spot four days out. Enter the lottery if the schedule allows, per the Angels Landing permit guide, but build the day around The Narrows regardless, since a missed lottery should not derail the plan.

Leave Zion by early-to-mid afternoon for the roughly 2-hour drive to Bryce Canyon. The road climbs in elevation noticeably — expect cooler temperatures at Bryce even in summer, and possible winter driving conditions from late autumn through spring. Overnight either just outside the park at Bryce Canyon City or in the small town of Tropic a few miles further, which tends to have more affordable rooms.

Arrive at Bryce with enough daylight for a first look at the amphitheater from Sunset Point or Inspiration Point — the hoodoo formations catch dramatic light in the last hour before dusk.

Day 3: Bryce to Kanab to Page (about 1 hour, then about 1.5 hours)

Spend the early morning at Bryce, when the hoodoos are lit low and the crowds are thinnest, then head out toward Kanab, about an hour south.

Kanab is the hinge point of this route and a good place to add one slot canyon that Antelope Canyon does not compete with on price. Two BLM-managed options sit near Kanab: Peek-a-Boo Canyon and Red Canyon, both of which can be hiked independently and without a paid guide — a real contrast to Antelope Canyon’s mandatory tour system.

A guided version exists too for travelers who prefer not to navigate the sandy access road alone; the Peek-a-Boo Canyon and the Great Chamber hoodoo tour covers this stretch with transport included. For a broader look at what else is nearby, the Kanab slot canyons guide rounds up the options and their relative difficulty.

Travelers who would rather skip the independent drive can also book a guided hike into The Great Chamber near Kanab, which pairs well with an afternoon push on to Page.

From Kanab, Page is roughly another 1.5 hours east. Overnight in Page — it is the only realistic base for an early Antelope Canyon slot the next morning, and hotel inventory there fills up around popular tour departure times.

Clock check again: Kanab, in Utah, stays on Mountain Time. Page, technically in Arizona, would normally be on Arizona’s year-round standard time — except the surrounding Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time to stay aligned with Utah. For roughly half the year, that means Page effectively matches Utah’s clock rather than the rest of Arizona’s, and for the other half it can be an hour off from both. Confirm the actual local time in Page before locking in a tour departure — this is one of the most common scheduling mistakes on this route.

Day 4: Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and the drive home (about 4.5 hours back to Las Vegas)

This is the day that must be booked first when planning the whole trip, not last. Antelope Canyon can only be entered with a licensed Navajo guide, in a timed slot, and reservations for both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon commonly sell out weeks ahead in busy months — arriving in Page and hoping to buy a same-day ticket is not a workable plan in spring through early autumn.

Lower Antelope Canyon is generally the cheaper and more physically demanding of the two — it involves ladders and narrower stairways through a slot canyon below ground level — and tickets typically run in the lower part of the price range mentioned below. Book through a Lower Antelope Canyon tour ticket as far ahead as the trip is planned, ideally several weeks.

For the booking mechanics and the difference between Upper and Lower access points, see the Antelope Canyon booking and Navajo permit guide, and compare the two canyons directly in the Upper Antelope Canyon guide and Lower Antelope Canyon guide.

After the tour, Horseshoe Bend is a short drive from central Page and requires only a modest parking fee — no permit or guide needed, just a walk of roughly 10-15 minutes each way from the parking area to the overlook. Go earlier in the day if possible; the overlook has minimal shade and the walk back is fully exposed to sun.

From Page, the drive back to Las Vegas is the longest single leg of the trip — roughly 270-280 miles, about 4.5 to 5 hours depending on the route and stops. Plan to leave Page by early-to-mid afternoon to avoid arriving back in Las Vegas very late, and factor in the return crossing from Mountain Time (and possibly Navajo Nation daylight saving time) back to Pacific Time, which effectively gains an hour or two on the clock.

What to pack for desert and canyon country

Layering matters more than any single item on this route, since the trip crosses several thousand feet of elevation change between the Las Vegas valley floor, Zion’s canyon bottom, and Bryce’s high rim. Sturdy closed-toe shoes with good grip are non-negotiable for The Narrows approach and for Bryce’s uneven hoodoo trails, and a separate pair of quick-drying sandals or water shoes makes wading the Virgin River far more comfortable — some outfitters near Zion rent canyon-specific footwear and walking sticks for travelers who would rather not buy gear for one hike.

A refillable water bottle, sun hat, and high-SPF sunscreen cover the exposed stretches at Horseshoe Bend and the Kanab slot canyon trailheads, where shade is minimal. For Antelope Canyon specifically, guides generally do not allow tripods or large camera bags on standard tours, so a phone or a small mirrorless camera worn cross-body tends to work best in the narrow passages. A physical or downloaded offline map is worth having too — cell coverage is patchy through stretches of the Arizona Strip and the Navajo Nation between Kanab and Page.

Cost breakdown for this 4-day route

Item	Approximate cost (per person, 2026)
Zion + Bryce entry (2 parks)	~$35 x 2 = $70, or $80 for an annual America the Beautiful pass
Lower Antelope Canyon guided tour	$90-140
Horseshoe Bend parking	~$10 (per vehicle, split across the group)
Kanab BLM slot canyon (independent)	Free, or $100-150+ for a guided version
3 nights hotel (Springdale, Bryce/Tropic, Page)	Highly variable by season; budget $120-250/night each
Rental car (4 days)	$50-100+/day before insurance and one-way fees

The America the Beautiful pass becomes worthwhile at three or more national park entries — Zion and Bryce alone put a couple close to the $80 threshold, and any side trip that adds a third NPS unit (Grand Canyon, for instance, on a longer version of this trip) makes the annual pass the cheaper option outright. See the America the Beautiful pass guide for where it does and doesn’t apply — it does not cover Antelope Canyon, which sits on Navajo Nation land outside the NPS system.

Self-drive versus an organized multi-day tour

Doing this route independently means covering roughly 700-800 miles of driving over four days, managing three separate hotel bookings, and — critically — booking the Antelope Canyon permit far enough in advance. The upside is flexibility: extra time at a viewpoint, a detour, or an earlier start whenever conditions allow.

An organized multi-day tour trades some of that flexibility for simplified logistics. A packaged option like the 7-day Utah and Arizona national parks tour from Las Vegas covers a wider loop than this 4-day version, bundling transport, some lodging and the Antelope Canyon booking into a single price — useful for travelers who would rather not coordinate three hotels and a tribal permit themselves, at a correspondingly higher total cost. For a fuller comparison of the tradeoffs, see guided tour versus rental car for day trips.

Travelers who want a Bryce-area outdoor activity beyond hiking can also add the Bryce Canyon hiking challenge tour on day 2 afternoon if there is spare time before the drive to Kanab, though it will compress the schedule and is best treated as optional rather than core to the route.

For travelers deciding between this specific 4-day route and a shorter guided alternative, a packaged option such as the 4 day tour to Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon from Las Vegas follows a similar arc with transport and some entries handled by the operator, which can suit travelers who would rather not self-drive the Virgin River Gorge or the Kanab-to-Page stretch at all. It is a different trip in feel — less flexible on timing, but with none of the reservation logistics described above falling on the traveler.

Booking order and lodging timing

Because Antelope Canyon slots are the hardest constraint in this itinerary, the practical booking order runs backward from that fixed point: lock in the Antelope Canyon tour first, then book the Page hotel around it, then work backward through Bryce/Tropic and Springdale lodging once the overall trip dates are set. Doing it in the opposite order — booking hotels first and hoping a matching Antelope Canyon slot turns up later — is the most common way this trip falls apart in high season.

Springdale in particular deserves early attention: its room count is small relative to Zion’s visitor numbers, and popular months can sell out well ahead of the Antelope Canyon booking window closing. Bryce/Tropic and Page tend to have more flexible inventory, though prices there also rise closer to the date as availability narrows.

Cost breakdown for this 4-day route

What this itinerary will not promise

This route will not promise a guaranteed Angels Landing permit on day 2 — the lottery outcome is outside anyone’s control, and the plan works whether or not that permit comes through, because it is built around The Narrows instead. It also will not suggest booking Antelope Canyon after arriving in Page, or treat a last-minute high-season booking as realistic — the tour operators’ own availability calendars are the deciding factor, and they fill up on their own schedule, not the traveler’s. Anyone assembling this trip should lock in the Antelope Canyon reservation before finalizing hotel dates in Springdale and Bryce, not after.

For a shorter version of the Zion-Bryce pairing without the Page extension, see the Zion and Bryce 2-day itinerary; for the reverse approach of starting from Page, the Grand Circle 3-day itinerary covers a similar loop from the other direction.