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Day 3 in Zion. This hike would be a little longer than yesterdays with roundtrip distance being 8 miles or so. We again started around 8:00 but now it was the Tuesday after Labor Day and the parking lot at the trailhead was virtually empty. We saw maybe a dozen people in total along the trail and most of these were headed to or from Hidden Canyon, which is only about a mile from the trailhead.
The first part of the trail climbed very quickly above the canyon floor via some long switchbacks. After a mile or so we encountered the junction with the trail up Hidden Canyon. Beyond this the main trail continues to switchback for another 1/2 mile or so until it reaches the mouth of Echo Canyon. The 1/2 mile or so walk through Echo Canyon was a very pleasant stroll with no climbing whatsoever. The view of the Echo Canyon narrows below was fantastic.
On the other side of Echo Canyon the trail started to climb again and very shortly reached the junction with the trail that goes to Cable and Deertrap mountains. This is about the halfway point. Beyond this point the trail continued to climb and eventually came to another set of switchbacks that brought us up to the rim of the canyon. From there it was a very easy walk along the rim to Observation Point about 1 1/2 miles away. About 1/2 mile from Observation Point we encountered the East Mesa trail coming in from the right. We stayed to the left and were at Observation Point in about 20 minutes.
The view from the top here is awe inspiring. It was neat to look DOWN onto Angels Landing which I had been on top of just the day before. And I though THAT was high up! From Observation Point you are 2200 feet above the canyon floor. We goofed off for about an hour on top, walking to different view points and just resting and relaxing. There were only 5 other people up there.
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View from Observation Point, Zion Canyon National Park
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Court of the Patriarchs, Zion Canyon National Park
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