Mount Carmel Scenic Byway
Mount Carmel Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Utah. Within Utah it covers roughly 60 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Mount Carmel Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
State Route 9 climbs out of Zion Canyon as the Zion–Mount Carmel Highway, a 1930s engineering feat that switchbacks up the canyon wall and bores through a 1.1-mile tunnel cut behind the cliff face, with galleries opening to views of the canyon below. East of the tunnel the landscape shifts to the cross-bedded slickrock of Checkerboard Mesa. Oversized vehicles need a ranger escort through the narrow historic tunnel.
- Zion–Mount Carmel tunnel (1.1 mi)
- switchback ascent
- Checkerboard Mesa
- slickrock country
- SR-9
Plan a drive on Mount Carmel Scenic Byway →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.