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| Hiking | 8.74 Miles |
1,829 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.74 Miles | 3 Hrs 49 Mns | | 2.47 mph |
| 1,829 ft AEG | 17 Mns Break | 4 LBS Pack | | |
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[ show ]
| no partners | | Day 3 in Zion
Once again, I did not get selected for an Angels Landing permit. Although that cut into my beer-drinking funds, I wasn’t too upset. I reverted to Plan B.
West Rim Trail to Scout Lookout Plus
This hike includes everything from the Angels Landing hike—except the last 300 feet of elevation gain, the chains, and the conga line of people. After finishing Walter’s Wiggles, I headed over to plead with the two rangers checking permits. I whined and cried about not being picked for two days and asked if I could just head up. They’d heard all the stories before and wished me a good day—somewhere else.
I later learned from others on the bus that there are two alternate ways to get in:
Go in the late afternoon, after 2:30 PM. Sometimes the rangers are gone by then.
Talk to people on the way up and see if they have any openings on their permits. If they do, you can check in with them and go up together.
Anyway, a suggestion from our BnB host was to just continue up the West Rim Trail. You get higher than Angels Landing, avoid most of the crowds, and enjoy just as good views—just without the bragging rights. I was very happy with this choice and would recommend it to others.
[ youtube video ]
This was supposed to be our last hike in Zion before heading over to the North Rim for a few days. But after checking my email and voicemails, I found out that storms on Sunday, June 1st, had blown out a transformer. The North Rim was without power and had no estimated repair time, so our reservations were canceled. Oh, joy.
Luckily, we were able to extend our stay at our BnB by a day. This is the same BnB that wasn’t our first choice—our original hotel canceled us three weeks ago because construction wasn’t finished. I’d highly recommend the BnB we stayed at (The Harvest House, between stops 3 and 4 on the Springdale line). Adults-only, clean and quiet rooms, and a great breakfast.
Taylor Creek Trail
Next, we headed out of the main part of the park and made the 45-minute drive to the far northwest section to check in with the ranger station there. We were in sampling mode now, trying to see as much as we could while we were still around.
The Taylor Creek Trail (out and back) is about 6 miles. I chose to just go out to the first cabin (Larson), which made it a short 2-mile round trip. The scenery improved the farther in we went, so I’d like to return and do the full route, including the second cabin and the alcove/cave at the end, reportedly 15 degrees cooler.
Kolob Viewpoint
We hopped back on E. Kolob Canyon Road and drove it to the top/end. We didn’t hike but took in the incredible views. This parking area is also the start of the Timber Creek Overlook Trail—one for another trip.
[ youtube video ]
Lava Point Overlook
Back out of the park and headed toward Springdale. Near the town of Virgin, we turned onto North Kolob Terrace Road. It was 91°F when we started and 65°F when we reached our first stop 22 miles later. Once again: stunning views, made even better by thunder boomers to the north. No hiking here, just oohs and aahs.
Kolob Reservoir
A hop, skip, and a jump from Lava Point, we briefly checked out Kolob Reservoir.
Then it was back to town to suck down some suds and take in a calzone at Zion Pizza & Noodle. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Really, the weather all day was pretty delightful for mid-June. So far as we were on trail, the path is in good shape up to Scout's Lookout.
If it was wet or icy, I can see the need for the chains.
It's still just as stunning. The white slick rock and pines could fool some (when looking at a photograph) in to thinking they are looking at Yosemite. Very peaceful back there.
We elected to do the full overnight canyon via the West Rim TH, so most of our hike was downhill thankfully. Loads and loads and loads of rappels like 30+, not to mention all the down climbing, and plowing thru thick log stew. 
The water levels were full so thankfully we were able to swim right over the nasty keepers. Save those for another trip. 
Thankfully only busted right ankles were sustained when things could have been much, much worse! 
Rappel 1 was an easy sloping 80-footer down to a tree that we used for rappel 2 that was another angled 150-footer to another tree that was used for rappel 3 that was a mostly vertical 150ft drop down the falls to a pool & ledge with some bolts that made for the 120ft vertical rappel 4. 
, some boulders to bypass, and then we were above that 150ft rappel 8 with a sweeping view of Zion Canyon of Emerald Pools down below. 
So I threw the rope out a bit trying to clear some ledges though I ended up getting it snagged on some some flakes but I didn't realize this until I was 30ft down from the anchors... So as I'm rappelling down, the end of the rope is pulling me away from the natural center line and it was rather difficult to pull up on it to get some slack for my brake hand. Luckily there was a ledge I could traverse on, lock off, and pull/flick the rope off of the flakes and unstick it. Though once all the way down the rope pull was futile, so I ascended 30ft back up to a ledge to get a better angle and was able to pull it down and did a short drop off of a chockstone to get back down to the ledge for the 165ft final rappel. 
