Springdale Guide

Springdale is a one-street town that exists for exactly one reason, and does it beautifully: it’s the front porch of Zion National Park, its main drag ending at the park gate, its shuttle feeding straight into the canyon. The setting is unfair — the same 2,000-foot Navajo sandstone walls that make Zion famous rise directly over the galleries, patios, and outfitters lining the street, so you eat dinner in the shadow of the park. It grew from a Mormon farming settlement founded in 1862 into the polished gateway it is now, and it’s the smart place to sleep if you want dawn in the canyon.