Red Cave Begins Where the UTV Has to Stop
Two slot canyons outside Orderville, reached by UTV with a guide at the wheel and the walking saved for the last stretch.
Most ways into a southern Utah slot canyon begin with an afternoon of walking. This one begins with a seat. ROAM's guides drive the UTV out to Upper Red Cave and Lower Red Cave, two canyons on the Red Cave road outside Orderville, and park at the mouth of each. The walking starts where the machine stops.
The kit list the operator publishes for this ride has two items on it: shoes, and a camera.
Two hours is the figure on the booking form. The operator's own page for this tour puts it at two to two and a half. Plan the rest of your day around the longer number.
The rest of the listing is short. Private transportation and bottled water are included, gratuities are not, and the tour carries 4.9 across 1,717 reviews.
Award Winning UTV Slot Canyon TourTwo hours from the ROAM storefront in Orderville out to Upper and Lower Red Cave. A guide drives. Water is included.www.viator.comTwo Stops on the Red Cave Road
The listing gives Upper Red Cave twenty minutes and Lower Red Cave thirty. At the lower canyon the operator puts the walk in at about a hundred yards, which is the distance between the parked machine and the narrow part. That short approach is why the operator files this ride under beginner on its own difficulty scale.
Rappelling is not part of this one. ROAM runs that from the same storefront as a separate, longer trip with technical gear provided.
The East Side Keeps Its Own Clock
Orderville sits east of Zion, on the side the Mount Carmel tunnel opens onto. The operator's pitch for this stretch is thinner crowds and, at the higher elevation, cooler air. Its storefront is just off Highway 89.
The company runs on Mountain Time, an hour ahead of Las Vegas, and anyone more than fifteen minutes late is left behind. Most of Arizona is the other half of that warning: it does not move its clocks in summer. Check the time on your confirmation against the clock in Orderville, and treat whatever your phone picked up on the drive as unreliable. More than one departure goes out each day, which is the reason the company gives for holding the line at fifteen minutes.
Who Gets a Seat
The operator's own page opens this ride to age one and up. The booking form here starts its youngest traveler band at four. Four is the floor when you book through this page. Every reservation needs an adult on it.
Three groups are waved off in the listing itself: travelers with spinal injuries, pregnant travelers, and anyone with poor cardiovascular health. Everyone else it calls suitable for all fitness levels. One booking takes up to fifteen travelers, and the operator publishes no group-size limit of its own, which makes fifteen a ceiling on your reservation and nothing more.
What Rides Along
Private transportation and bottled water are included. Gratuities are not. Everything else, the operator says, is provided.
The machines are Can-Am Defenders and the guide drives. Nobody in your party takes the wheel.
The ride meets and ends at the same place, the ROAM storefront at 500 East State Street in Orderville. Cancel at least twenty-four hours before departure for a full refund; inside that window nothing comes back. The listing also lets the operator call off a departure for bad weather.
Two hours later you are back on State Street with sand in your shoes and most of the day still ahead of you.