Utah's National Parks. Ron Adkison
to convince skeptics of the feasibility of cabling lumber from the rim to the canyon below.
Camping at the spring is not allowed, so backpackers should tank up here and choose one of many potential campsites well away from the spring, preferably at least 0.25 mile away.
The trail continues descending below the spring, soon passing a reddish outcrop indicating our passage back into the realm of the Temple Cap Formation. Shortly thereafter we meet a signed junction (0.1; 6445) where we ponder our hiking options. The left fork is a spur leading to trails that end at Cable and Deertrap mountains. Some hikers may elect to stay overnight in the area, hiking to either mountain the next day before backtracking to the trailhead. Others may wish to tank up on water at the spring, then spend the night atop the plateau enroute to the two mountains. Still others may wish to hike on through to Echo Canyon and camp among the pines, slick-rock, and towering canyon walls of that drainage.
• • • • •
Deertrap and Cable Mountains
Distance: 3.7 miles to Deertrap Mountain; 3.1 miles to Cable Mountain
Low/High elevations: 6445’/6910’ for Deertrap Mountain; 6445’/6900’ for Cable Mountain
Turning left at Stave Spring junction (0.0; 6445) onto the signed Deertrap Mountain Trail, we ascend a draw southward, initially across a sagebrush-choked flat. Soon the trail leaves the draw, climbing moderately southwest alternately through thickets of Gambel oak and grassy, wildflower-speckled openings. On the plateau, the grade eases as we stroll west to a signed junction (1.2; 6860) with the trail to Cable Mountain, forking right, and the Deertrap Mountain Trail, continuing ahead. Numerous potential campsites can be found enroute to either mountain, but backpackers must have an adequate water supply. Those bound for Deertrap Mountain will continue southwest from the junction and descend easily amid oak groves and grassy clearings into the densely wooded valley above and south of Hidden Canyon. Our trail traverses tan Temple Cap Formation rocks as we enter a draw, its gentle contours contrasting with the shadowy, cliffbound nadir below. We cross the dry course of the draw about 200 yards upstream from an ephemeral spring, then climb steeply west on Temple Cap rocks to a broad ridge crowned with Carmel limestone. From here we enjoy fine views stretching south-southeast over a landscape of domes and cliffs embracing the valley of Clear Creek.
Now we follow the descending trail southwest to the head of The Grotto’s abysmal canyon, then almost top another limestone-capped knoll (6921’). Deertrap Mountain appears to be little more than a broad, wooded bench slightly below us, and with the inspiring vistas we presently enjoy, some hikers may decide to go no farther. But hikers who wish to gaze over a 2500’ precipice into the gaping maw of Zion Canyon will follow the trail over the Carmel-capped knoll, switchbacking down over red Temple Cap rocks, and finally stroll across the rolling bench of Deertrap Mountain to the brink (2.5; 6740) of the great cliffs plunging into the canyon below.
Two of Zion’s most rugged hanging canyons, knifed deep into the plateau, can be seen in full profile opposite our viewpoint—Heaps Canyon to the northwest, above the Emerald Pools amphitheater, and Birch Creek due west, above the Court of the Patriarchs amphitheater to the northwest. Farther down-canyon, The Streaked Wall foregrounds one of the Park’s preeminent landforms, West Temple. With our eyes we can trace the Sand Bench Trail far below as it climbs to the wooded, slide-formed bench below a broad sweep of sheer, colorful cliffs.
Hikers can easily visualize the once-uninterrupted surface of the Markagunt Plateau, as the rim of the plateau opposite looks essentially the same as where we now stand, save for a greater abundance of tall pines.
To the south and southwest tower the bulky crags of Mountain of the Sun and Twin Brothers and the square-edged platform of mighty East Temple. Perched on ledges and shady niches below them are hanging forests of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir. The green lawns and historic buildings of Zion Lodge, seeming to lie at our feet 2500 feet below, contrast its manicured grounds with the raw and magnificent workings of nature that dominate our senses.
We now have the choice of backtracking to the Cable Mountain Trail, following a faint trail south along the rim for more inspiring vistas, or following a well-worn path north along the rim for 0.5 mile. That path reveals a broader view of Zion Canyon, from Springdale, near the canyon’s mouth, to Angels Landing in its upper reaches. The viewpoint at the end of the trail on a shoulder of the Deertrap Mountain ridge offers a head-on view of monolithic Great White Throne, its nearly level, brushy crown punctuated by a host of Navajo Sandstone hoodoos.
The Cable Mountain Trail, following the course of an old wagon road that led from the plateau-top sawmill to the Draw Works, ascends gradually northwest from the Deertrap Mountain Trail junction for a little while among ponderosa pine and Gambel oak, then begins a steady descent for the remaining distance to the rim.
Enroute, scattered stumps attest to the extensive forest that thrived here prior to 1904, when timber harvesting began in earnest. Today, only scattered ponderosa pines grow on this part of the plateau, and most of them have grown up since the big trees were cut. Timber cutting disturbed the landscape and created sunny openings, and now the plateau is infested with greenleaf manzanita, alderleaf mountain mahogany, pinyon, juniper, and Gambel oak.
Upon entering a pinyon-juniper woodland growing on a northwest-facing slope, we negotiate a single switchback, from where we enjoy splendid vistas of hoodoocapped Great White Throne and the Draw Works on the rim of Cable Mountain, with the immense cliffs of Zion Canyon and the forested platforms above them forming the backdrop.
Below the switchback we stroll northwest over brush-choked slopes, concluding the hike at the headframe of the Draw Works (1.9; 6496). While absorbing the sublime vistas of the Big Bend of Zion Canyon, Angels Landing, Echo Canyon, towering cliffs, and seemingly endless plateaus thick with woodlands of pine and oak from our perch atop 1200’ cliffs, we can reflect on the ingenious operation of transporting much-needed lumber from the forest-rich plateau to the timberless land below.
The tenacious spirit of early Mormon settlers and the painstaking trial-and-error efforts of David Flanigan led to the realization of the prophecy of Brigham Young that “like a hawk flies,” a way would be discovered to transport lumber from the plateau down the great cliffs into Zion Canyon.
Trees felled and milled on the East Rim Plateau helped to build structures in communities along the Virgin River from Springdale to St. George. The original Zion Lodge was built with ponderosa pine lumber in the 1920s.
The headframe of the Draw Works that remains today, stabilized with cables and on the National Register of Historic Places, is the third such structure, the two before it having been consumed by fire. Do not damage or deface this historic structure in any way, and exercise caution when walking near the cliff edge.
While the time required to transport a load of lumber to the canyon bottom was only 2½ minutes, those planning to hike there will be on the trail for another three hours.
• • • • •
Upon returning to the trail junction below Stave Spring, hikers continuing to Weeping Rock will turn left and descend easily across a sagebrush-infested flat. A spur trail, actually an old road closed to vehicles, forks right (0.3; 6390), leading 0.5 mile to an obscure trailhead at the Park’s eastern boundary (see Trip 14).
Our route proceeds across a gently sloping basin, rimmed by low mesas clad in pinyon and juniper. As the draw steepens and curves northwest, we begin traversing a narrow wooded bench above a precipitous gorge and leaving any potential campsites behind until Echo Canyon, more than a mile ahead.
Pinyon-juniper woodlands dominate alongside the trail, but the shady cliffs above the canyon below us harbor hanging forests of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir. Views extend down the cleft of Echo Canyon, past the Observation Point Trail to the cliffs abutting the west rim beyond.
The traverse suddenly terminates high above the floor of Echo Canyon (0.8; 6430), a slickrock-embraced chasm dotted with tall ponderosa pines and rimmed by wooded mesas. Now the rocky trail plunges steeply down the upper wall of a side canyon, amid a greater diversity of trees