Zion National Park East Rim guest trail review

This trail review was written by Becca Christlieb, an avid backpacker and explorer of the SW. She lives in Las Vegas and has visited a lot of the amazing places nature has to offer in that area. 

Zion National Park is one of my most favorite places in the world to visit. It has amazing beauty anytime of the year. We decided to hike some trails on the 14th of Feb. Usually, there is a significant amount of snow this time of year, but thanks to an unseasonably warm year in the Southwest, hiking Zion was PERFECT.

We decided to do a trail that was a little less traveled, and less-known, which was the East Rim Trail. 

Zion has a shuttle system in place that adds about 45 minutes to travel time to get to the trail head, but thanks to hiking in the off-season, we were able to drive straight to the trail head. 

We started hiking in the late morning and headed up a series of long switchbacks until we essentially made it up the top of the canyon wall. Ignoring the turn off for the Hidden Canyon trail, we continued with the long switchbacks and enter into a small slot canyon.

Hiking through the slot canyon, and across a bridge we came upon a trail marker.

The trail for the East Rim isn't obvious, and there was a man sitting right next to the sign who informed us that the sign was not the correct turn off. (He was wrong.) After hiking up the wrong trail for about 3/4 of a mile, we realized we had received the wrong information, we headed back down the trail and hooked onto the actual East Rim trail. We then crossed over a volcanic field with cairns as trail markers. This part of the hike is relatively flat compared to the previous switch backs.

The "flat" portion of the trail soon gives way to another switchback section. This time, it is wooded and view of the high white cliffs become more visible.

Finally, (and it is quite the climb), we reached the top of the cliff to even more amazing views. 

From here, the hike is very flat and easy. We chose to go further on the trail for about another mile and sat down for a meal of spaghetti. Having forgotten our utensils, we improvised with sticks and rocks. I broke the rocks down to a manageable size. 

The trail continues on for several miles to Jolley Gulch and eventually the East Entrance, but we chose to head back the way we came in. The views with the lighting on the way down were spectacular.

Thank you, Becca, for a wonderful trail review and some breathtaking photos. 

Trail review: Three Sisters Wilderness

A few years ago I had the chance to lead a group of Scouts on a 50 mile hike through the Three Sisters Wilderness area in Central Oregon. This hike offers an incredible variety of terrain and truly breathtaking scenery. The main attractions are North Sister, Middle Sister and South Sister. But Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Mt. Washington and Three Fingered Jack are all visible along the trek. All these peaks are extinct or dormant volcanos which makes the trip interesting for anyone interested in geology. We found football sized chucks of obsidian at one point near the trail. 

We started out on the Pacific Crest Trail near Dee Wright Observatory on highway 242. The first stretch is over barren volcanic rock as far as the eye can see. After a few miles you get into trees with a few beautiful lakes along the trail. The trail goes around cinder cones as it climbs up and around the Three Sisters. 

The year we went was a very late winter. We ended up hiking a day and a half through snow, navigating by map and compass to stay on course. It was exhausting but incredibly beautiful. We met another group of hikers in a little flat area. They make the trip every year around that same time and had never seen that much snow before. The area that was still under 2-3 feet of snow usually featured a grassy meadow and wildflowers fed by a small spring. 

We made our way down out of the snow and wound around South Sister, past the cow pie (a giant lava flow coming off South Sister. You’ll know why it’s called that when you see it,) and ended up at Elk Lake. We hit a couple other lakes in the area which provided a substantial craw daddy dinner on evening. Delicious! 

I would highly recommend this stretch of trail. Although it would have been easier later in the year when the snow was melted (we went in the middle of July) it was absolutely beautiful with the snow. If you do go in the snow, make sure you know how to navigate! Also a spot doesn’t hurt (http://www.findmespot.com/en/). We certainly had one for the trip. 

Let me know if you’ve hiked the area, or have any other suggestions in the area.