Take a ride with us thru the Zion - Mount Carmel Tunnel
Opened in 1930, the Zion - Mount Carmel Highway & Tunnel created an eastern entrance to Zion Canyon. It’s purpose was to increase tourism in Utah and the National Parks, specifically by creating a route for vehicles from Bryce Canyon National Park to Zion National Park to Grand Canyon National Park.
Take a ride with us, and let’s explore this engineering marvel. (The NPS has a nice writeup on the history of the tunnel here.)
The East side road is 20 miles long from US-89 in Mount Carmel Junction to the Tunnel. The first half runs straight through this high plateau and you’ll see trees before the road begins twisting and turning thru the sandstone mesas …
Before the main Tunnel, there’s a smaller “short tunnel” (sometimes called the “smaller tunnel” or “2nd tunnel”), only a few hundred feet long, cut through a rock spur …
Another mile or so of twists and turns …
And we arrive at the Tunnel East entrance, where traffic backs up for a few minutes during one-way tunnel operations to allow large RVs to pass …
The 5,613 feet (1.1 mile) tunnel slopes down at a 3.3% grade. It’s dark, with natural lighting and ventilation provided by 5 “windows” or openings (seen on the right) in the rock cliff face …
Exiting the thru Tunnel West …
We head downhill on a 3.6 mile series of 5 switchback turns stacked on top of themselves in less than a 1/4-mile area. This is turn #5 — named Spring Bend for the spring frmo which water was piped to the contractor’s camp in 1928-29 …
Turn #4 — named the Nevada Switchback for the tunnel contractor …
Turn #3 — named Sandwich Rock for a huge boulder of like appearance …
Turn #2 — named Carl’s Bend for Carl Bergdahl, the job supervisor …
Turn #1 — just called the Skinny Bend …
And finally the turn over the Pine Creek Bridge at the bottom of the canyon …
The 20th century was certainly a different time. This 25 miles of road and a mile-long tunnel cut thru the face of cliff, went from concept in 1920, to engineering study in 1923, to funding by Congress in 1926, to contracting and construction start in 1927 to completion in less than 3 years, on July 4th, 1930. The tunnel cost $503,000, and the contractor’s profit was $30,000 (8%). The switchbacks cost $937,000, and the contractor’s profit was $9,000 (3%).1
The tunnel was built almost 100 years ago, in an age when vehicles were smaller. A 1987 study by the Federal Highway Administration found that large vehicles could not negotiate the turns inside the tunnel without crossing the center line. So since then, oversized vehicles require a permit to drive the tunnel, and park rangers stop traffic during the daytime hours and allow just one-way traffic for oversized vehicles to pass.
Are you planning a future trip to Zion? BEWARE — Starting in 2026, UDOT says …
… which is kinda ironic, since the tunnel was originally built to *promote* tourists driving from Bryce Canyon to Zion to Grand Canyon. This change will add 65 miles and increase the drive time from Bryce to Zion from 1:45 hrs to 2:30 hrs for large vehicles, camper-vans, trailers and motorhomes.
The Zion Tunnel - From Slickrock to Switchback, by Donald T. Garate, 1989 revised 2012, Zion Natural History Association.