The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel — Attraction in Apple Valley

Construction of the 1.1 mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel began in the late 1920's and was completed in 1930. At the time that the tunnel was dedicated, on July 4, 1930, it was the longest tunnel of its type in the United States. The purpose of the building the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel (and the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway) was to create direct access to Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon from Zion National Park. Today the tunnel is basically the same as it was upon its completion over eighty years ago. However, because of the softness of the sandstone through which it passes, much reinforcing has been done and concrete ribs now give added support to the the tunnel's entire length. Collapse of a sandstone pillar west of Gallery #3 in 1958 broke the top out of that gallery and flushed tons of debris into the tunnel, causing its closure for several weeks. Because of that collapse, the tunnel is now monitored electronically twenty-four hours a day to warn park officials to the danger of a...

This was an excellent to-do at Zion National Park. It was a little confusing for us figuring out how to get there. If you are only wanting to drive through this tunnel, you will pay for admission to the park and then follow the drive down to the tunnel. So the drive is included with the price of admission to the park, but there is an additional cost for larger vehicles. We had to wait about 10 minutes to enter the tunnel, but that was only because they made the tunnel one-way to allow an oversized vehicle to pass through. Once that vehicle was through, it returned to two-way. The wait was beautiful, getting a chance to actually look around. It even started raining then, and it was so nice and relaxing. The tunnel was impressive, especially since it was made such a long time ago. The kids loved it, and once we got through to the other side, it was like a whole other world. We even saw a herd of...

Even in early May, you have to wait in a long queue to drive thru the tunnel since they only allow one direction of movement. I was stopped because I was in a truck and told I needed to pay a $20 fee to drive thru because trucks “ had to be escorted” because of the narrowness of the tunnel. There were no signs anywhere advising of this. In fact, before I decided to take the tunnel I went to the information booth at Zion to ask about any trails accessible thru the Carmel Tunnel route. The ranger told me nothing of a fee to drive thru if you have a truck. When I told the ranger at the Carmel tunnel this, he said the information desk “wouldn’t know anything about the tunnel” and insisted that I missed the non-existent signs about the fee. There was no “escort”. The only “escort” is that one side of traffic goes every 5 minutes. Be aware of the fee if you drive thru...