Observation Point
Post-conference, Friday, March 24
After the conference, I proposed a few more days of outdoor activities, trying to entice yet more colleagues to come on some scenic desert outings. Five new adventure-seekers stepped forward: Nic, Arn, Brian, Sarah, and Kathy. Of these five, only Arn had agreed to activities through the entire weekend; the rest were only available for one day.
With only one day (for the larger group), I once again proposed nearby Zion National Park. With a bit more time available, I chose the Observation Point hike - a longer and higher (but ultimately more scenic) hike than Angels Landing. An added advantage was the lack of any truly scary exposure. It was therefore unlikely we'd get any turn-backs because of that.
Team 2 at Zion
Once again, we drove out of Las Vegas, heading northeast into Utah, and eventually arrived in Springdale. I had figured that it being a weekday, we'd have less lines and more parking flexibility than our visit on Saturday the week before. However, I was wrong. Although the entrance lineup was somewhat shorter, every available parking spot in the lower Zion Canyon part of the park was full. We actually had to drive back out of the park and find a roadside parking spot. I've never seen Zion that busy. A quick look at the year-over-year visitation statistics bears this out. 2016's March visitation, for example, was nearly double what it was just five years prior.
Eventually, we got ourselves sorted out and got dropped off by the park shuttle at the Weeping Rock trailhead, location of the East Rim Trailhead and the start of the climb to Observation Point. It was already past noon by this point, so it was somewhat important for us to start making progress towards the top.
The Observation Point trail can be roughly divided into four "phases" - the initial climb out of the lower Zion Canyon, on well-formed mostly-paved switchbacking trail, a second phase through a section of narrow canyon, a third phase that climbs up through backcountry slickrock, and a fourth phase of exhilarating switchbacks across a sheer face of white Navajo sandstone to the edge of the East Rim. I got a bit ribbed for using this four-phase terminology as we climbed, but still I thought it served as a useful way to chunk up our progress.
Slow, steady progress was the name of the game as we climbed up the switchbacking lower section, and in just under an hour the trail turned a scenic corner and entered a much smaller side canyon. We were now in the narrows of Echo Canyon, a fairly major feature that drained a large part of Zion's landscape to the east. Recent rains meant that the floor of Echo Canyon still had a bit of water flowing in it, and in a few spots we had to rock-hop across the little stream.
An especially impressive aspect of this side canyon was a feature known as Cable Mountain (due to the old Mormon cableworks still visible on the edge far above). The canyon wall leading up to said Cable Mountain was truly immense - a couple of thousand feet of essentially vertical, smooth, pink sandstone.
The trail along the bottom of Echo Canyon is fairly flat, offering us a respite from the steep climbing of the initial part of the trail. In a section of the canyon, the sun was at just the right angle to shine directly down on us, and in this sunny and warm spot we chose to break for our lunch.
Team below Cable Mountain
After lunch, we finished off the last bit of walking in the Echo Canyon narrows, marvelling at the bit of trail cut out of a section of very narrow slot. Beyond this, the terrain opened up again, and we entered my so-called "phase 3" section: the pleasant wandering through an area of Zion slickrock backcountry. One feels nicely away from busy Zion Canyon here, and for the most part, you are - with the exception of the somewhat busy trail traffic (although nowhere near the intensity of the Angels Landing route). There are lots of pretty sections of banded yellow slickrock through here.
Branch off of East Rim Tr.
The trail winds skillfully upward through here, slicing and switchbacking through a challenging landscape of side drainages, steep slopes and short cliffs. I remembered taking my 83-year old Dad through here about fifteen years ago, and that brought back nice memories. He had been so proud and chatty with just about every fellow hiker he met.
Presently the rock underfoot and alongside turned from a yellowish-orange to a pale white. We had arrived at the start of "Phase Four" of the hike: the long, Zorro-like trail that is cut back and forth across the broad, sloping upper mass of Navajo Sandstone. Although this section of trail looks scary and sketchy from afar, the actual trail cut is generously wide - at least seven or eight feet across - and footing is easy throughout. The steep but otherwise pleasant trail also brings you back towards Zion Canyon, and from our now much-elevated position, the views were getting pretty fantastic.
By about 3:30pm, we reached the East Rim and the trail flattened out. We had completed all of the 2,200 feet of ascent from the floor of Zion Canyon, and now it was a simple walk along a mostly-flat track to Observation Point itself, which we could now see at our height only perhaps half a mile away. Success was near.
The beauty of Observation Point is that one truly gets the best possible panoramic view of Zion Canyon from here. Standing at the point, you are looking directly down-canyon, with the impressive monolith of the Great White Throne, the pink walls of Lady Mountain, the now somewhat diminuative tower of Angels Landing, and the wandering Virgin River, all available with nearly a single glance. If we looked closely enough, we could see the ants of countless hikers scrambling along Angels Landing's impressive ridgeline, nicely highlighted by the sun.
Also visible from Observation Point was the view of Zion's high country, still snow covered from the winter and in stark contrast to the warm multi-colored canyon scenery below us.
After a nice break, a round of hero shots, and some more marvelling at the great scenery, we started our journey back. We weren't entirely sure when the last of the canyon's shuttles ran, and we didn't feel like having to do a forced march down the canyon road at night.
Looking down on the Angels Spine
