In October, can you drive your own car through Zion NP starting at the East entrance and exiting the South Entrance?

I realize we would have to take a shuttle to go into the main part of the canyon. We'll do that, too, but on a different day.

Yes, you can drive through Zion east to south(west) at all times during the year. It is a state highway and locals use it to get back and forth across the mountains in that area as do a huge number of visitors. If you are driving an RV or other over size vehicle, there is a fee to drive through the tunnel and, no matter what you are driving, there may be a delay at the tunnel. Except in the middle of summer, I have never experienced a delay of longer than 10 minutes and it is usually shorter.

Because this route is a National Park, there is a fee for entry unless you have an annual or lifetime national park's pass. The fee applies whether you are planning a stop in the park or just driving through.

The shuttle stops running this year on October 29th (starts April 1). When the shuttle is not running, private vehicles are allowed in the main canyon.

Fantastic!

If there aren't any tunnel delays, and you're just "passing through" about how long does it take to go from the East entrance to the South entrance? This would be during late October when I THINK it's not going to be real crowded.

It should take about 30-40 minutes, more or less. Bad weather in late October is always possible and that could add to the time, however, that area is at a relatively low altitude so the most likely adverse weather that time of year is rain which should not delay you too much.

We were there early October last year and we were amazed at the amount of people visiting the park. Late October might thin out a little.

Utahtea