The turn that makes La Verkin a gateway
Stand in the center of La Verkin, at State Street and 500 North, and you are standing on a decision. Come up from Interstate 15 and you have been riding SR-17 — the short six-mile connector that drops off the freeway at Anderson Junction near Toquerville, threads down through the Ash Creek country, and lands you right here. This is where SR-17 ends. Everything east of this corner is SR-9.
That is the whole reason a town of a few thousand gets to call itself a gateway. La Verkin holds the southernmost highway junction to Zion National Park. Point west and you are headed back to the freeway and the wider world; point east on 500 North and you are committed to the canyon country. Old-timers will tell you the name itself likely comes from a mangling of the Spanish la virgen — for the Virgin River you are about to follow all the way up. Fitting, then, that the river and the road leave town together.
The Zion Park Scenic Byway ahead
Once you swing east, you are on the Zion Park Scenic Byway — the designation carried by the entire 57-mile length of SR-9, from I-15 out at exit 16 all the way to US-89 at Mount Carmel Junction. The stretch in front of you is the good part. From La Verkin the byway runs to Virgin, then Rockville, then Springdale, where it slips through the south entrance of the park and climbs 14 miles of red rock before tunneling east toward Mount Carmel.
Worth knowing: SR-9 wasn't always SR-9. It was numbered SR-15 for decades and only got renumbered in 1977, once the Interstate claimed that number for good. So if you dig up an old postcard calling this 'Highway 15 to Zion,' it is the same road under your tires — just wearing a younger name.
Practical notes for the road-tripper
Treat La Verkin as your last full-service stop before the corridor narrows. The junction area is the services hub for this end of the byway — fuel up, grab food, hit a grocery store, and top off anything you'll want before Virgin, Rockville, and Springdale, where options get smaller, pricier, and busier the closer you get to the gates. If you are hauling anything wide or tall, plan ahead: Zion's Mt. Carmel Tunnel has size limits and charges an escort fee for oversized rigs, so this is the town to sort that out.
One more piece of local wisdom: the junction is a great place to reset your expectations. From here the speed drops, the shoulders shrink, and the scenery starts doing the work. There's no need to hurry the last 25 miles — the river will keep pace with you the whole way in.
Nearby — make it a loop
Before you commit to the drive east, La Verkin rewards a short poke around. Walk down to Confluence Park, where Ash Creek meets the Virgin River, or find the overlook of the lava-canyon bridge locals nicknamed "Octopussy," dropping into the gorge below the old Pah Tempe Hot Springs. Then follow the byway itself: pause in Virgin for Kolob Terrace Road and quiet Virgin River access, detour from Rockville to the Grafton ghost town, and finish in Springdale at the doorstep of Zion National Park. Loop it however you like — every one of these hangs off the same corner where SR-17 hands you to SR-9.