OUR TOP 3 RECOMMENDED TOURS FOR OCTOBER

A couple of maple leafs fallen on textured soils left behind from a flash flood

#1 - Zion half-day sunset tour

Zion’s dramatic cliff features receive a fantastic angle of light at sunrise and sunset in the fall. The direction at which it rises and sets lines up great for the park, shadows are cast at the perfect angle which gives Zion’s cliffs great dimension. In addition to the flattering angle of light, there are many opportunities at higher elevations in the park to find smaller more intimate scenes to photograph as in the image above.

#2 - Half-day secret slot canyon tour

With the angle of sun changing as we enter into fall, so does the light in our slot canyons. Summertime light in the canyons is very bright, intense and vibrant making for great images. However fall is a contender for quality images, but the light is different. It is quite a bit softer, and produces a “peachy” softer glow on the walls. These red-ish/peachy colors are amazingly saturated in the months of October and November.

#3 - Zion half-day sunrise tour

As mentioned above the angle of light at sunrise and sunset is very flattering during the fall for Zion. There are plenty of excellent shooting opportunities at sunrise. The only reason we recommend sunset over sunrise is because there are more sunset location options than there are sunrise in this area, which allows us to chase scenes based off of cloud locations. If you were to do a sunset and sunrise tour with us, we do visit separate locations for each tour.

Useful information from a locals perspective if you’re visiting in the month of October

October is the first month that no longer contains the long summer days of Zion. Fall is arriving. Temperatures are very pleasant during this month and visitation to Bryce and Zion starts to die down a bit. It is still quite busy however. October is a beautiful month where you really start to see the direction of light change in the canyon. The angle of the sun during October is very flattering for our slot canyons, sunrises and sunsets. One of the most exciting parts of October is the kick off of the fall foliage season in Zion. Color starts changing at the beginning of October at the parks highest elevations. However, Zion’s scenic canyon (where most of the hiking and iconic features are) will not reach peak color until around the first week of November. Of course this can change year to year, but early November really seems to be a solid bet for trying to time the colors.

WEATHER

Zion National Park average high/low temperature: 78/49

Bryce National Park average high/low temperature: 58/28