Live camera
Zion National Park live camera — Utah
Looking up the canyon from park headquarters. The sandstone cliffs known as the Temples and Towers of the Virgin all fit into one frame.
Sample September 2026What you are looking at
A camera at the park headquarters in Utah, looking up a sandstone canyon. The line of cliffs facing you is known as the Towers of the Virgin.
The white and red rock is sand dunes that turned to stone. The layer is close to 700 metres thick, one of the thickest formations of its kind anywhere. The canyon was cut by the Virgin River, and because a narrow flow sliced straight down, the walls were left standing near vertical. Zion was designated in 1919 as Utah's first national park.
At its narrowest the canyon is about six metres across, with six hundred metres of wall on either side. It was first protected in 1909, as a national monument under a different name, and was renamed in 1918.
The camera looks upward, so the rock colour comes out strongly while the sun is on it. When the sun is low the canyon floor sinks into shadow and only the rim above stays lit.
The other name was Mukuntuweap, taken from the language of the Paiute of this country. A name held to be hard to read was thought to keep visitors away, so it was changed to Zion, which is what the settlers had been calling it. Zion is a place name out of the Bible, and the names on the cliffs in front, such as the Temple and Towers of the Virgin, were given at about the same time.
Mountain time, fifteen to sixteen hours behind Japan; local morning falls around the change of date in Japan. It is a still image, and nothing shows at night.
About this camera
| Place | Utah |
| Format | Still image |
| Time zone | America/Denver (UTC-7, DST UTC-6) |
| Category | Nature |
| Operator | U.S. National Park Service |
| Terms of use | U.S. government work |
The operator's own page
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.
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