Emerald Pools Trail

The Emerald Pools Trail system in Zion National Park is one of the most accessible and visually rewarding routes in the canyon, climbing through three tiers of pools fed by waterfalls dripping and cascading from the sheer Navajo sandstone walls above. The lower trail, a paved path accessible to strollers and wheelchairs for most of its length, leads beneath a dripping overhang where a thin waterfall of seeping groundwater falls from 100 feet above, creating a cool mist and a hanging garden of maidenhair fern, monkey flower, and scarlet penstemon clinging to the wet sandstone face. This type of seep ecosystem, called a hanging garden, is found throughout Zion and supports rare and endemic plant species found nowhere else. The middle pool sits in a bowl beneath another set of falls, while the upper pool—reached by a steeper dirt trail—is the most dramatic, cradled in a natural sandstone amphitheater where twin waterfalls plunge from the canyon rim. The surrounding Zion Canyon walls display the park's characteristic layered sandstone in shades of cream, pink, and red. The trailhead near Zion Lodge is easily reached by the free park shuttle, which runs throughout the main canyon from March through November and eliminates the need to navigate limited valley parking. Midday crowds in summer are substantial; early morning and late afternoon visits are considerably more peaceful.