If you think Zion National Park is only a three-season destination, then you're missing out on a beautiful season in this land of towering red-rock cliffs.
    While Zion is best known as a summer hot spot – literally – winter brings a decidedly more relaxed atmosphere as crowds are gone, the convection-oven heat is replaced by mild days followed by cold nights, and trails can be hiked in relative solitude.
     Oh, storms can bring snow to the park’s high country, but not often to the floor of Zion Canyon. All the popular trails – Pa’rus, Weeping Rock, Riverside Walk, Lower Emerald Pool, Hidden Canyon, and even precarious Angel’s Landing – are open, though you’d be wise to watch for ice.
    Lodging specials at Zion Lodge start with the “Zion in Winter” package, which offers a double-occupancy room Sundays-through-Thursdays in the lodge for $80 per night, breakfast included. Spend an extra $10 for this special, offered under the “WNTR” promotional code, and you can get a nicer Western cabin, complete with a gas fireplace. During the year-end holidays, between Dec. 22 and Dec. 30, as well as on President’s Day Weekend Feb. 16-18, these rooms cost an extra $20 each per night.
    Among the “Lodging and Learning” packages in Zion this winter is a photography workshop for $456 per couple. That price covers two nights’ lodging in Zion Lodge, breakfast buffet both days, and a box lunch, with days spent out in the park with a Zion Canyon Field Institute instructor working on your lighting and composition skills.
    For information on these and other packages, call the lodge’s sales office at 435-586-9476.