Hiking to Zion's Observation Point the Easy Way

We wanted to make another trip to Zion National Park, and a ranger in the visitor center gave us some great advice. Since we are camped about 20 miles east of the park, there is a special short-cut hike that will be easy for us to drive to the trail head. It took driving on narrow dirt roads, but we arrived at East Mesa trail head and started our hike. We didn't take any pictures of the rather nondescript trail through the pine trees. But after 3.5 miles, we arrived at one of the best views in Zion National Park--Observation Point.

This is a very popular hike and viewpoint, so we had to wait in line to get a spot on the pointy rock overlook for the obligatory pictures. Behind Mark and over 2,000 feet below, we can see the road that the shuttle bus drives to take visitors through the park. Looking down at Zion National Park, it is easy to see that we have wandered into another of God's wonders.

We waited in line behind this guy from Europe, balancing on the very tip of the point on his belly. For those that think we sometimes take dangerous pictures, this was crazy even to us! Did we mention that it's also windy up here at Observation Point?

We moved to a less busy tip of Mount Baldy, and we can look down easily on the dark brown mountain on the right. That's Angel's Landing, famous for the narrow trail where hikers cling to chains to climb to the top point. We know about that trail, because we took it last time we were in Zion.

Angel's Landing has been closed most of this week to replace some of those chains, so it was extra busy today. We zoomed in to see the group of hikers on the top of that narrow fin after successfully making that climb to the top. As good as their view is, we are considerably higher and looking down on them.

Since we are standing on top of the highest trail at Zion, we can look down from all the sides to get birds-eye views. Because of this view, this is one of the most popular hikes here, and the reason for the crowd at the top. But most people didn't get the secret directions from the ranger like we did. This morning they hiked four miles up 2,200 feet in elevation from the canyon floor. Their route took them right up that far mountain face in the picture below, across from where Mark is standing on the right.

We zoomed into the mountain face to show the faint z-shaped switchbacks that most of these hikers worked hard to climb this morning. So we think our relatively flat hike today to get to Observation Point was really awesome!

After all that work, we're surprised that most hikers looked over the edge in only one spot, and then hiked back down. Instead, we circled the entire mountain edge and got to enjoy views from every direction. Here Denisa is looking down to see the end of the shuttle stops where we hiked into The Narrows two years ago.

After we had taken in the beautiful views, we are ready to head back to the car on our nice level trail. But wait! Mark thinks there might be a better view if we could just bushwhack through this area . . . Like usual, he is leading Denisa through the brambles and briers in search of another view.

It was our last hike during our week-long stay at East Zion RV Campground. We've had a good time here, but it's time to head down the road again. We have even more wonders out there to explore!