Which side is the best side? When you’re talking about where most people find their way into Zion National Park, the answer is the south side. It’s right there, on the doorstep of Springdale leading into Zion Canyon and the popular park’s visitor center.
The humble east entrance, on the other hand, welcomed less than half the traffic of the south entrance this year. It has only a fee gate rather than a visitor center where tourists can orient themselves.
But along Highway 9 in western Kane County, excavators are moving dirt against a backdrop of forested hills and partially constructed buildings to change that.
“We love having our visitors,” Zion Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh said. “But we do want to provide them this opportunity that might give them a different perspective, different recreational opportunities, but also help relieve some of the crowding during the really busy times.”
Inside the structure that will become the Zion Discovery Center, large wooden beams lift a vaulted ceiling over a cavernous room. The building is the pillar of a public-private collaboration to bring more attention to this area, as trails in the Zion Canyon corridor become increasingly crowded by the park’s nearly 5 million annual visitors.
If construction continues on schedule, Bradybaugh said, the center should open by late 2026. It may then take a year or two for visitors to catch on to what the park’s east side has to offer, but he believes it will have a significant impact on spreading people out.
The center will be a hub for more than 35 miles of mountain biking trails and 20 miles of hiking trails, Bradybaugh said. The grounds will feature interactive agricultural activities that illustrate how food has been grown in the area and patio space for ranger-led talks.
It’ll also be the launch point for a new shuttle service.
Visitors would be whisked to trailhead stops on the east side, as well as connections with the existing shuttle route in Zion Canyon. The park and its partners are still gathering the funding, but the hope is that it will feature zero-emission electric vehicles.
“We may not have that up and running right away when the Discovery Center is open, but it's our intention to be as close to that as we can,” Bradybaugh said.
The center’s 18-acre campus is located just outside the park boundary on private land, so the project is a collaboration with several entities beyond the National Park Service, including nearby counties, the landowners at Zion Mountain Ranch and the park’s nonprofit partner, the Zion Forever Project.
The partnership also includes input from local tribes, who have called this part of the West home since time immemorial. Kaibab Paiute Tribal Chairman Roland Maldonado said some members have helped with programming and exhibits to ensure visitors can learn from Native perspectives.
“We have stories about the stars, about the land, about the animals,” he said. “And we can come up and share some of that.”
For him, it’s an opportunity to educate the next generation about a place that has meant so much to Native peoples. In fact, they viewed the land around Zion as so extraordinary, he said, that it was never claimed by any one tribe.
“It was open for everybody, because it was that special,” Maldonado said.
As Zion’s tourism numbers have grown, it’s become an economic engine for its surrounding gateway towns. In 2024, the impact was $1 billion.
“It's absolutely critical,” Kane County Commissioner Celeste Meyeres said. “We really need to keep Zion open, accessible, and keep people coming and experiencing all that we have to offer.”
Some businesses in Zion’s traditional gateway communities on the east side are concerned that development around the Discovery Center could take away some of their business, Meyeres said. The greater East Zion area will eventually include a new lodge that’s anticipated to open around 2028.
“There's always some uncertainty about competition or changes,” Meyeres said, “but I think it's going to be really good for our entire area.”
A Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute study estimated that developing Zion’s east side would add 451 jobs in Kane County and $4.4 million in state and local tax revenue. There’s also some new housing development planned for the East Zion area where those workers will be able to live, Meyeres said.
The project’s total cost will be over $50 million, said Zion Forever Project CEO Natalie Britt, including $21 million from the state. Zion Forever will also staff the Discovery Center, with dozens of new jobs in the gift shop, education and visitor services.
Having a new place for people to visit before they explore this wild part of southwest Utah won’t just improve safety, she said, but could open up a new experience that Zion guests have been missing.
“This is a place where education can really fly in a way that it can't in the center of the canyon, because the park is literally so condensed and so busy,” Britt said. “People can spread out here and really get back to that Zion experience that many folks had 20, 30 years ago.”
