Three small towns sit on US-89 between Zion's east side and the turn up to Duck Creek. Most guests drive through all of them in 20 minutes. This guide covers what is worth a stop, where the last gas and groceries are, and which one stop to make if you only make one.
The Long Valley Stop: Glendale, Orderville, and Mount Carmel on the Way Up the Mountain
Come up from Zion, Kanab, or Page and you drive the same 22 miles of US-89 to reach our turn at Long Valley Junction. Three towns sit on that stretch. Most people roll through all three without lifting off the gas, then ask us the next morning where the nearest grocery store is. The answer was back down the hill, and they passed it.
This is the guide to that stretch: what is open, what closed, where the last fuel is, and the one stop we would make if we only made one.
The lay of the valley
Long Valley runs north to south along the East Fork of the Virgin River, with the Pink Cliffs on one side and the White Cliffs closing the bottom end. US-89 follows the river the whole way and climbs the entire time. Mount Carmel Junction sits at about 5,200 feet, Orderville at 5,450, Glendale at 5,780, and Long Valley Junction at 7,450, the highest point on US-89 in southern Utah. From the junction it is another 10 miles west on Highway 14 to the village at 8,400 feet.
Northbound on US-89 Elevation Fuel Food Groceries
Mount Carmel Junction 5,200 ft yes Thunderbird no
Mount Carmel (town) 5,200 ft no no no
Orderville 5,450 ft yes, 24h coffee, tacos Terry's (closed Sun)
Glendale 5,780 ft no Brink's Wed-Sat no
Long Valley Junction 7,450 ft no no no
Duck Creek Village 8,400 ft yes yes small store
The rule that comes out of the table: Orderville is the last real stop. Fuel, a proper grocery store, a coffee shop, and a bathroom, all on one block of Main Street. Fill up and shop there. Nothing between Orderville and the village will save you.
Mount Carmel Junction: pie, and the crossroads
This is where Highway 9 out of Zion’s east entrance meets US-89, 12 miles from the park’s east booth and 17 miles north of Kanab. There is no town here in the usual sense, only a crossroads with a lodge, a golf course, two gas stations, and the Thunderbird Restaurant.
The Thunderbird has served pie here since 1931. The neon sign reads “Ho-Made Pies” because the man who painted the first sign ran out of room for “Home” and shortened it. The name stuck and the pies earned it. Apple with butter rum caramel, coconut cream, strawberry rhubarb, and a five-berry Thunderberry are the regulars. The restaurant lists hours of 7 AM to 10 PM every day, though visitors have reported weekend-only hours in the off-season, so call ahead in winter. The nine-hole golf course next door dates to 1962 and is the only course for 60 miles in any direction.
A mile south of the junction, on the Kanab side, a gravel track leads to the Belly of the Dragon, a 400-foot drainage tunnel under the highway that water has carved into a rippled sandstone tube. The walk through takes a few minutes and daylight reaches you from both ends. Skip it if rain is forecast anywhere upstream. It is a culvert, and it does what culverts do.
Mount Carmel: the painter on the bluff
One mile north of the junction the road passes through Mount Carmel, a scatter of houses and a stone church built in 1923. The reason to stop is Maynard Dixon. The painter built a summer home and studio here in 1939 and his ashes rest on the bluff above it. The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts runs the property as a living history museum from March through November, by appointment: $40 per person with a docent, $20 self-guided, tours starting from the gallery on State Street. Book before you drive up. The house sits behind a gate and there is no walk-in tour.
If you have seen Dixon’s work in a museum, the light in this valley will explain it. If you have not, the appointment is a hard sell with kids in the car. Drive on.
Orderville: the stop to make
Settlers founded Orderville in 1875 as a United Order settlement, a communal experiment where families pooled property and ate in a common dining hall. It lasted about ten years, longer than almost any other attempt in the territory, and the town still carries the name. A small Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum on State Street tells the story in season. Call 435-648-2047 before counting on it.
The practical reasons to stop sit on one block:
- Terry’s Food & Drug, 65 East Main. A real grocery store with produce, meat, and a pharmacy counter. Monday through Saturday 8 AM to 9 PM, closed Sunday.
- The Shop Coffee Co, 15 East Main, built into the old mechanic bays of the Sinclair station. Coffee they roast themselves, pastries, breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and soup. Tuesday through Saturday 7 AM to 5 PM.
- The Sinclair, same address. Pumps run around the clock, diesel included, restrooms and Wi-Fi inside.
- The Rock Stop, 385 West State, on the north edge of town. A rock shop shaped like a giant rock, with espresso and soft-serve inside. Open 8 AM to 5 PM. The kids will want to stop here. Let them.
Two places guests still ask about are gone. Forscher’s German Bakery closed, and the newer coffee shop in the Sinclair bays is the replacement. Sparky’s gas station across the street closed too. The Sinclair is the fuel stop now.
Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort carries an Orderville address but you cannot reach it from Orderville. The road in leaves Highway 9 near Zion’s east gate. Plan a resort visit on the way up and you turn off before the junction, not after.
Glendale: the quiet one
Four miles north, Glendale is the oldest settlement in the valley. Settlers first tried it in 1862 as Berryville, abandoned it after the Berry brothers died in an 1866 attack, and resettled it in 1871. Today it has about 300 people and a Main Street you will drive in under a minute.
Two places keep the lights on. Brink’s Grill & Country Store at 10 North Main serves a Mongolian stir-fry buffet, burgers, breakfast, and hand-dipped ice cream, with a small store attached for snacks and essentials. Aggregators list Wednesday through Saturday, 8 AM to 8 PM, so do not plan a Monday lunch around it. The Historic Smith Hotel, a 1927 boarding house turned bed and breakfast, is the only lodging in town and has been run by the same couple since 1998. On the south end of town there is a small orchard rest stop with a pavilion, restrooms, and a Grand Staircase-Escalante information kiosk, which makes it the best bathroom stop between Orderville and the village.
The Buffalo Bistro, the rattlesnake sausage place that showed up in every road trip blog for a decade, closed. Two successors tried the same building and closed too. Do not route a meal around it.
Long Valley Junction: nothing, on purpose
The junction is the top of the climb, a stop sign where Highway 14 leaves US-89. There is no gas, no store, and no building worth naming. Turn west. Ten miles later you are in the village.
The junction matters more in winter. On the rare days when the Cedar City side of Highway 14 closes for a storm, this is the way in and out. The detour from Cedar City runs I-15 north to Highway 20, east to US-89, then south through Panguitch to this junction and west into the village, about two hours instead of 45 minutes. Check road conditions before you leave, whichever direction you are coming from.
The decision, in one paragraph
Coming up from the south with a car full of people and an empty cooler: stop once, in Orderville. Fuel, groceries at Terry’s, coffee at The Shop, and let the kids run through the Rock Stop. Twenty minutes, done. Coming up with time and no agenda: add pie at the Thunderbird and, if it is dry, the Belly of the Dragon tunnel. Coming up on a Sunday: shop before Long Valley, since Terry’s shuts for the day and nothing north of it will help. Coming up on a Monday or Tuesday: skip Glendale and the coffee shop, both are dark.
Fall 2026 in the valley
Three events land on this stretch this fall. The Carmel Mountain Car Show runs September 25 and 26 at the Thunderbird golf course, with a Saturday show from 9 to 3 and a pie eating contest. The Browncoat Ball, a gathering for fans of the TV show Firefly, takes over Zion Ponderosa October 9 to 11. The Ponderosa Polar Challenge, a looped trail race with distances from a 5K to 150 miles, runs November 7 to 9. Rooms in the valley fill on those weekends. Duck Creek is 45 minutes up the hill and has space most of those weekends. See the cabins and book the night before the event rather than the day of.
