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Please say hello to Zion’s Rustic Cabin.

My wife and I were invited to spend the night here several years ago with a good friend. We had a lovely evening. The next morning we learned that the cabin was for sale! One impulse buy later and I found myself sleeping in my own cabin with an experience that didn’t measure up: Rustic One Star

Our impulse buy soon morphed into a project, and we’ve been coming down from Alaska twice a year to work on the cabin. Shacks were torn down and junk hauled away. We did some carpentry, painted the cabin. Water (cold water for washing) was made to run out the kitchen faucet. The wood stove was repaired to keep the place from burning down. The kerosene lamps were upgraded to use odorless fuel and Trav’ler, our three burner propane stove is cooking again. Trav’ler has an oven but if you succeed in baking a cake, that would be a first.

These improvements in my view deserve at least a Rustic 2 Star rating. And the newly installed indoor toilet should take it to three or even four! But only guests get to award stars, and we hope your stay will be better than you expect. We strive to keep the place clean. No maid service, but the dishes and mattresses are acceptable to most. Please bring your own sleeping bag and toiletries. We provide extra blankets

Our main opponent in the crusade for cleanliness could be the Plume Tailed Pocket Mouse, Perognathus formosus formosus, one of several species of mice that inhabit Zion National Park. These are worthy adversaries, cute but messy, and can squeeze through the smallest opening. Zion Rustic Cabin has bigger openings than that and we try not to attract them so no cookie crumbs on the floor please

If a house is rustic, there must be insects now and then. The cabin has window screens, but a few mosquitos and flies get in somehow. Ed Abbey called them cow flies, but we have many deer and no cows, so they must be deer flies. Urban pests, like one might find in the wrong part of a big city, must have frozen to death during the long cold winter. You would have too.

The cabin is situated on a one acre lot with Zion National Park just over the back fence and we see lots of wildlife. Wild turkeys roost in the Ponderosa pines. Deer and coyotes cross the lot regularly. And the cabin owner down the street reports mountain lions. So watch out.

Also within walking distance is the remarkable trail network that the National Park Service has created. Cable mountain is a four mile walk featuring Birdseye views of Zion canyon and all those tourists way down below. Observation point ( 6 miles ) is easily accessible but the trail down to the valley, blasted out by NPS many years ago, was closed by a landslide.



To recap, please don’t expect a five star stay. A rustic 5 star is the best you can hope for. The cabin is at the end of a 2 mile dirt road, has no electricity, poor cell service, very limited internet, no hot water, no showers, no central heat, no air conditioner, and no swimming pool. Did I mention the mice?

If you want these amenities, and who wouldn’t, we recommend the Zion Ponderosa Ranch located Just up the road where the pavement begins. All of the above, a restaurant, swimming pool, horseback rides, ,tennis courts Jeep tours.

Of course. You could stay here and wash up at the ranch afterwards. The deal with the Ranch allows access to the pool and Wi-Fi.