Cedar City
Area Hiking
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Zion
Area Hiking -
East Rim
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 Distance:
16.4 miles (plus 15 miles by car)
Walking
time:
day 1: 4 1/2 hours
day 2: 5 1/2 hours
Elevations:
1,190 ft. gain, 2,560 ft. loss
East Entrance Trailhead
(start): 5,720 ft.
Cable Mountain: 6,500
ft.
highest point: 6,910
ft.
Weeping Rock Trailhead:
4,350 ft.
Trail:
Very popular, well maintained trail
Season:
Late spring through mid-fall. The higher parts of
the trail are usually covered with snow from mid-November
to May. For current conditions call the Visitor Center,
Cedar City, at (801) 772-3256.
Vicinity:
Cedar City
Zion
National Park is probably the best all around hiking
area in the state of Utah. The trails here are very
popular, so if it is solitude you are looking for
this is the wrong place. But you will certainly find
plenty of breathtaking scenery and interesting geological
formations. The East Rim Trail, especially when walked
in the direction suggested here, is a very pleasant
way to sample what Zion has to offer. Very little
climbing is required, the temperatures are not extreme,
and the scenery just keeps getting better and better
all the way to the end.
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Day
1
From the East Entrance Trailhead
the hike begins by following Clear Creek for about 1.5
miles and then turns north into Cave Canyon. You will
soon notice that much of the trail is along an old wagon
road. Before Cedar City was created this area
was used extensively by ranchers and loggers. Once it
reaches Cave Canyon the trail begins to ascend gradually
to the top of the tableland that surrounds Zion Canyon,
and after another mile it doubles back to give you a fine
view from the mesa top down into Clear Creek Canyon. From
this vantage point you can easily see the beginning of
the trail, 400 feet below, threading its way along the
side of Clear Creek.
Next, the trail veers again
to the north to get around Jolley Gulch, and then, free
of any further obstacles, it meanders along the contours
of the mesa in a westerly direction towards Stave Spring.
About 0.1 mile beyond Stave Spring you will see a fork
in the trail, where you should turn left toward Cable
Mountain. Soon you will cross a small, unnamed stream,
beyond which you might want to begin looking for a camp
site. There are a number of nice spots along this section
of the hike. Please be aware, however, that you should
not camp right next to the water and you should be out
of site of the trail.
There are two interesting
side trips here to consider, either after establishing
camp on the first day or before you put on your backpacks
on the second day. Depending on how far from the Stave
Spring trail junction you camped, Cable Mountain is about
2.0 miles away and Deertrap Mountain about 2.5 miles.
Cable Mountain, the most
interesting of the two side trips, is a high promontory,
about 2,100 feet above the Virgin River, with an unimpeded
view of Angels Landing and the West Rim. It is called
Cable Mountain because in the early 1900s, before Zion
National Park was formed, the Zion Cable Company operated
a tram from the top of Cable Mountain to the bottom of
Zion Canyon. The tram was used primarily for lowering
lumber from the mesa top to the canyon floor where it
was loaded onto wagons and hauled to nearby towns like
Springdale and Rockville. Quite a bit of the original
structure can still be seen on the edge of the mountain,
although the tram hasn’t been operated for seventy
years.
The second side trip you
might want to consider while you are on the mesa top is
the walk to the Deertrap Mountain. Deertrap, which is
situated high above the Zion Lodge, offers a fine view
of the Court of the Patriarchs and Lady Mountain on the
other side of the Canyon. You can easily walk to either
one of these viewpoints and back in a couple of hours. |
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Day
2
The trail from Stave Spring
to Weeping Rock is one of the most scenic walks in Zion.
It is all downhill and it is only 5.0 miles. It will
only take a few hours to complete the trip, so if you
haven’t taken the side trip to Cable Mountain yet
you should definitely do so before starting down. The
trail to Weeping Rock passes directly beneath Cable
Mountain on the way down, and it is all the more interesting
if you have also seen it from the top.
The trail first heads
north into the back of Echo Canyon, and then turns west
to follow the canyon to the bottom of Zion. The scenery
starts getting very interesting after about 1.5 miles.
Echo Canyon gets narrower and narrower as you go down;
in places the canyon is only 20 feet wide, and everywhere
there are water-carved etchings in the rock. Finally
the side canyon breaks out into the main canyon about
500 feet above the Virgin River, and the trail switchbacks
the rest of the way to the bottom. 2.8 miles below Stave
Spring there is another junction where the trail to
the East Rim Observation Point climbs north out of Echo
Canyon. Observation Point offers another possible side
trip, but if you have already been to the top of Cable
Mountain you will note that the view is quite similar.
Finally, 0.6 miles before
you reach the bottom there is still another possible
side trip that is quite worthwhile: the trail into Hidden
Canyon. Hidden Canyon is another narrow slot canyon,
similar to the lower reaches of Echo Canyon, that protrudes
for a little over a mile from Zion Canyon into the East
Rim. Depending on how much exploring you want to do,
it will take from half an hour to an hour more of your
time to check it out. Note, camping is not allowed in
Hidden Canyon.
Content
from the book
Utah's Favorite
Hiking Trails
by David Day |
|
Utah's
Favorite Hiking Trails
access
info for 113 trailheads
75
detailed trail maps
250
photographs
loads
of hiking tips
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