Day 45 – Observation Point, Zion National Park

Monday, October 25^th, 2010

The site I found by the river last night was perfect, and free. It rained again last night. I’m starting to think that it rains every night here. It didn’t stop until around 9am and then the sun came out from behind the clouds. I got my stuff together and drove about nine miles back to the South entrance of Zion. It’s a $25 admission fee to get into the park, so the $80 Annual National Park Pass that I purchased at Badlands, SD has already paid for itself and then some. Once I got back inside the park it started raining again. I thought about scrapping the idea of hiking today as I sat in my car trying to figure out what the weather was going to do. I figured it would be a waste not to hike while I'm here so I grabbed my raingear and went to the shuttle stop. Luckily it stopped raining for good about five minutes later.

I only did one hike today, the Observation point hike via the East Rim Trail. It was a total of eight miles with an elevation gain of 2,148’ and is accessed from the Weeping Rock shuttle stop. About a mile into the trail I came across a section in Echo Canyon that was difficult to traverse because the depth of the stream had risen from the rain, so I had to scale a sloping wall of rocks to get through. I got about half way through and then backtracked to rethink my approach. Portions of Echo Canyon are slot canyons and the wind here quickly went from a steady, soft breeze to 30-40+mph. It was here where I met Carsten from Heidelberg, Germany. Together, we planned a route to get across the water. We ended up hiking the rest of the seven miles together. Carsten came to the US to attend a technology conference in Las Vegas and was spending a few days hiking around Bryce Canyon and Zion before he returns. Overall, the Observation Point trail was a relatively easy hike. It had a few steep sections but for the most part it was a gradual incline on mainly paved trails. Along the trail there were more steep drop-offs, great views the entire way up and lots of waterfalls, one of the benefits from all of the rain the past few days. From the top were panoramic views out over Zion Canyon, and across the way you could see Angels Landing. All in all, it was a nice hike but after just having done Angels Landing the day before, it would be hard for any trail to receive higher marks.

Leaving Zion, I drove out the south side of Zion park on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway (Utah Highway, U-9), a 14-mile long scenic byway that exits out of the east side of the park. I set my GPS to Bryce Canyon and continued east on U-9 and then north on US-89. There weren’t many people living between Zion and Bryce but I did see my share of animals. I passed by fields of cattle, buffalo, horses, llamas, donkeys, elk and Texas longhorn.

I drove past the turn that lead to Bryce Canyon after I saw a sign for Subway’s $5 footlongs and free wi-fi in Panguitch, UT, about seven miles out of the way. I don’t get to eat a lot of vegetables on the road, so between being able to load up a sandwich with tomatoes, peppers, onions and pickles and not having to write my blog from the front seat of a Subaru, Subway was a fine detour. The town of Panguitch encompasses only 1.4 square miles and I think I’ve seen every one of its residents come through this Subway, all dressed in camo with hunter orange vests and hats. The temperature is now in the 40s and snow can be seen off on the mountain tops. The girl behind the Subway counter said it snowed here last night and it is supposed to snow again tonight. It’s about time!