The Great White Throne

The Great White Throne is Zion Canyon's signature monolith, a wall of Navajo sandstone that rises about 2,350 feet straight up from the canyon floor near Angels Landing. Methodist minister Frederick Vining Fisher named it in 1916, and it has been the shape people picture when they picture Zion ever since.

Seeing it and climbing it

• There's no hiking trail to the summit. The routes up are technical, multi-pitch climbs -- one on the north face runs 25 pitches on notoriously loose rock -- and while day climbs don't require a permit, overnight bivouacs do.
• The National Park Service closes Great White Throne's climbing routes each year, typically from March 1 into summer, to protect nesting peregrine falcons.
• Most visitors take it in from the canyon floor: pullouts and shuttle stops along Zion Canyon Scenic Drive near The Grotto and Angels Landing put it in full view.

Zion Canyon's road is shuttle-only most of the year, so if you're headed in specifically to view it, plan around the shuttle rather than a private vehicle.