Sand Hollow Zion: ATV Tour Red Rock Desert & Gear Included

4.89

(143 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect my hands to get so dusty so fast. We met just outside Sand Hollow, where the red rock seemed to glow even under a cloudy sky. Our guide—Jake, I think?—handed us helmets and these gloves that smelled faintly like rubber and sunscreen. He cracked a joke about “rookie stripes” (the mud lines you earn if you’re new) and I immediately felt less nervous about stalling the ATV in front of everyone.

The first few minutes were loud—engines buzzing, gravel pinging against the frame—but then it settled into this weird rhythm. Sometimes we’d stop so Jake could point out some odd rock formation or a lizard darting past. The air was dry enough to make my lips chap, but they had cold bottled water in the back of one of the UTVs (I drank two before noon). The views over Southern Utah’s desert just kept opening up wider every time we crested a hill. It was hard not to shout when we hit a patch of sand that sent us sliding sideways—my friend did, anyway.

At one point we all paused for snacks—trail mix and something sweet I can’t remember now—and someone tried to pronounce “petrified dunes” like our guide did. Didn’t quite nail it. There were families in our group and a couple from Colorado who’d never touched an ATV before; everyone got the hang of it after ten minutes or so. The private ATV tour near Zion is set up for all skill levels, which honestly took the pressure off me trying to look cool (spoiler: I wasn’t).

The ride back felt quieter somehow—even though the engines were still humming. Maybe it was just that sense of being out there in all that space with nothing but red earth and wind for miles. I keep thinking about that last view before we turned around—the way the late light made everything look sort of unreal.