Zion Mountain School

I took three of my kids and a friend out for a day trip with Stephan. We had a blast. He was an excellent guide and was very entertaining as well. As an old guy with a fear of heights, I can tell you that having a guide with a sense of humor made the first rappel a lot more comfortable. We saw amazing rock formations, laughed a lot and learned about the history and geology of the area in addition to completing 11 rappels. I would gladly recommend this place and this guide

I stopped in to Zion Mountain School this weekend to rent canyoneering gear with a bunch of friends and the guy working was incredible. He was full of great advice and very friendly. Great place.

Jesse was super friendly and knowledgable. We came to rent some socks and shoes for our hike in Kanarra falls. I would have lost some toes if didn’t get the socks and shoes that Jesse recommended. He gave us recs on food places and the best scenic drive and sunset location. They have showers if you’re camping in Zion. The water was hot and the rooms were very clean. I would recommend anyone in the area to rent their gear here!!!

The Unilocal coupon doesn’t apply anymore and the school is still working with Unilocal to remove it.
My siblings and I went on a canyoneering trip to the slot canyons in Lambs Knoll for my birthday. Our tour guide, Al, showed us such an amazing experience! He was friendly, patient, funny, knowledgeable of the area, and of course, has tons of stories to share! Super laid back and very professional! Depending on the amount of people you with, the price of canyoneering will decrease.
Before you go on the trip, make sure you use the bathroom. The drive up to Lambs Knoll was about 30mins and the hike up was about another 30 mins. Instructions and safety took about 10 mins and next thing you know, you’re strapped up and ready to go! With a group of 4, Al made each of us feel comfortable on each course. He didn’t rush us off the mountain and even offered to continue on to do more rappelling. If we didn’t leave our mom on a souvenir shopping spree for 4 hours, I would’ve agreed for more! He even made me feel all skinny believing that I can squeeze myself between the slot canyons! Haha! That was an adventure in and of itself.
The Slot Canyons were one of my top 10 things to do while living in Utah and I’m glad I got to see how beautiful it is in person. The pictures below doesn’t do any justice to actually being there and touching the walls.
Before I wrap up this novel of a review, I have to say that I will definitely come back here and do the narrows. They offered 10% off our next adventure and 10% off apparel.

Rented our gear for the Narrows. Their package was $ 43/​person which included socks, shoes, wet suit and stick. Staff was super friendly. Minus 1 star because their gear looked beat up and when you take off the suit you smell like damped clothes — you know that smell when you’ve forgotten the clothes in the washer. The other minus star is because staff had said they would refund me if not 100% satisfied. You see, I wanted dry suits and the shop that I wanted was Zion Adventure Company, but walked in here accidentally — we were already here and the guy said we wouldn’t need them (the dry suits). However, my daughter fell in the narrows (she’s fine) but she was cold and couldn’t go to much more into the narrows after the fall, so she and I turned back and my husband and son went a little further in. I’m thinking if we had gotten the dry suits we could have gone further. So when we got back to the shop I told the guy this hoping he would offer some kind of refund but he didn’t. I was too exhausted to pursue it and I hate when places don’t honor their word.
So my advise, if you’re from Southern California where it’s always warm and/​or have little tolerances for the cold — get the dry suits. I saw other hikers wearing them and their gear looked like it was in way better shape. Their package was $ 52/​person. $ 9 difference that would had made our experience better.

This place was amazing! Very accommodating and gave us great advice on hiking the narrows. We tried going to other places, and that actually turned us away!!! They also couldn’t give us any recommendations on what to do. Luckily we found this hidden gem!!!

We came here and both of the employees were immediately helpful! We came here after another location was completely rude to us. Here they suited us (4 total) with wet suits, shoes, neoprene socks, and walking sticks! They gave us helpful tips and threw in a free backpack! Totally coming here again!

My group of 4 had an awesome experience with Zion Mountain School. We scheduled a 4 person canyoneering trip with them. Our guide’s name was/​is Alan. Alan is fantastic. He is very friendly, knowledgeable, patient, and skilled at his craft. As four novices, we didn’t expect to do anything particularly challenging/​intense, since we had no skills. But this was not the case at all. We did incredible rappelling from amazingly beautiful locations and surprisingly big drop offs. With Alan’s great guidance, it wasnt anything we couldnt handle. The experience blew us all away. I would highly recommend the experience and ZMS. Both were great. We were then offered a discount on equipment rentals for our hike through the Narrows the following day. Alan, Joni and everyone else at ZMS explained all the equipment to us in great detail (and with great patience as we asked a zillion questions). Even without the discount, we found their pricing slightly better than Zion Adventure. They also had special water hiking boots that are more like sneakers than the bulky ones rented at Zion Adventure (ZMS offers both, so you can try them both on). We all would highly recommend the lighter ones that we used and that the guides at ZMS suggested. They were excellent. Overall, customer service was excellent at ZMS. I cant say enough about them.

Recommended by our motel to rent gear here instead of more popular options and glad I listened. Great customer service and the exact same gear as other options in town, except we got socks, shoes and the pole for the price of just the shoes at the competitors.

Really friendly, helpful place to rent our gear (wetsuits, booties, shoes) for the Narrows. Cool vibe, they don’t make you feel like dorky tourists. We even missed returning some of our things and they (well, SHE – the woman who works here, who’s name I unfortunately didn’t catch) were totally fine with us bringing it all back the next morning. Recommended!

Great place for narrows gear. Super friendly and reasonable prices. Even the climbing gear is priced well, better that REI in some cases.

My family and I used Zion Mountain School to go canyoneering last August. We have a 7 and 9 year-​old and they had a blast. They are top-​notch and and very safe. I highly recommend them if you are looking for something very fun to do while in Zion.

My boyfriend and I walked in to rent water socks and shoes to hike the subway. The female employee working was extremely unhelpful in getting us our gear as this was our first time. She was too busy sweeping the floors instead of coming over to help us and instead just said «whatever you see is all we have». If your store has customers and are needing some help, sweeping can wait. Terrible.

Absolutely an amazing experience. Very professional and experienced. Al was our guide, he was a blast and since we had some experience we went at our on speed. The full day canyoneering trip was extremely fun.
ZMS offers many adventures for everyone. We will return.

My wife and I were there in September. we had an amazing trip – Al took us on a half-​day excursion to water Canyon. We did some amazing repels and felt perfectly safe the entire time. We were able to do things we never thought we could. Al was definitely known all over Springdale and Zion – he was an amazing, thoughtful, and hilarious guide. Five stars all the way!!!

Great experience for me, my wife and 10 year old daughter. We went canyoneering with Stefan, who was first class. Would recommend highly based on this experience.

Unattentive, nonchalant service. Owner acted as if he was doing us a favor. The second we walked in we were ignored and had to figure everything out ourselves… when we asked questions he was condescending and seemed irritated. When we returned our boots and socks, he asked us to clean them for him. Won’t be going back.

Just returned from a full day of canyoneering with my family (including parents in their 60s). All I can say is that this place is amazing — our guide Ethan was incredibly knowledgable, highly trained, and took us on an adventure we won’t forget. The equipment was all in great shape, and with no prior experience canyoneering, we felt safe and comfortable the whole time. I highly recommend Zion Mountain School and the canyoneering trips they offer. Hope to make it back for a multi-​day trip soon!

I came here looking for a shower and the cost was outrageous. 5 bucks for 5 minutes? What, am I competing in the Olympic event of speed showering? It’s not like I take a long time showering, but putting a time limit on shower is absurd especially when other places in town don’t. In light of this, I would venture a guess that the other services they provide are probably grossly overpriced as well.

My husband and I took a 3 day instructional canyoneering course with Zion Mountain School and we could not be happier with the course and the experience.
Our instructor was Jeremy and he was awesome (picture Jack Black, but with lighter hair!). Laid back, funny, yet very knowledgeable and professional with safety on his mind at all times. We chose to go with Zion Mountain School because the price difference for a three day course between them and Zion Adventure Company was significantly different. Not only that but Zion Adventure Company leads trips on specified days with multiple parties together. Zion Mountain School caters to each customer so you can choose your own dates and have a private guide. We also had to change our dates at the last minute and they were very accommodating.
I wanted to try canyoneering because it was my 30^th birthday and I wanted to celebrate in a way that was exciting and encouraged growth and learning new skills. I am so happy I took this course! The goal of the course is that after the 3 days, you should feel comfortable going on a canyoneering trip on your own (for 3BIII rated canyons).
Canyoneering is so much more than I thought it would be. Canyoneering, or technical hiking, is exploring canyons — the guts of the earth. Generally, canyoneering involves rappelling into the canyon and following the flood/​water routes — although often there is only a small amount of water. It involves not only repelling but stemming and down climbing. Stemming is when the walls of the canyon are so close together that you can put your feet on one side and kind of sit on the other side while moving along the wall to get to the other end. Usually you are doing this to avoid water below or simply because it’s too narrow to actually walk on the ground in the canyon. Down climbing is just that, climbing down from a short height by using some stemming and rock climbing techniques.
Canyoneering affords you amazing views you otherwise could not see. It also makes you feel so close to the earth, literally. It’s also a great problem solving activity. You have to constantly be aware of your surroundings, figure out your way through a canyon, and decide where to put your anchor so you can safely rappel down a side of a cliff. It is a slow adrenaline rush and you feel so accomplished coming out of a canyon.
Jeremy was a big part of our wonderful experience. I cannot say enough good things about the great time we had with him. We went to 3 very different canyons just outside of the park and we learned different techniques as well as being more comfortable with rappelling. By the 3^rd day, we were essentially leading our own canyoneering trip with our buddy Jeremy along for the ride. He was a good teacher and was knowledgeable not only about canyoneering but also the surrounding towns and flora and fauna.
We highly recommend Zion Mountain School and 2 weeks after our class, we’ve bought all our own gear and are going back to Zion next week for some more canyoneering. Thanks ZMS for the fabulous experience!