Paranaweap - Zion Nt'l Park -

Paranaweap - apprx 10 miles backpack. 2 days /1 night.
Dave and I did this in the summer of apprx 2002. We parked our car at a pull-out near Checkerboard Mesa near the east entrance of Zion Nt’l Park. You started off by going in between 2 Mesa’s – Checkerboard being to the left (east). The trail here was easy to follow and not too difficult other than a good steep climb to a saddle between the 2 mesas. That took some wind out of you, but we finally made it. Then you went down as far as we just climbed up. From here it was more level as we made it around the southern part of Checkerboard Mesa and headed east for about a mile.

The trail was hard to find for much of the way from here on out. Some cairns helped, and the trail was pretty faint. About 3 miles into the hike we found a nice sandy and shaded area where we decided to call camp for the night. We hid our packs in the trees, knowing at this time we were on BLM land and not within Zion’s bounderies. We didn’t need a permit to camp here on BLM land. Without our packs, hiking was so much more enjoyable. We headed the last mile or two down to the rim of the East Fork of the Virgin River, hoping to find the correct path to the bottom of the canyon – Paranaweap Canyon.

We found it and made the steep descent down to the river. This canyon rivals The Narrows in Zion Canyon, where hundreds of tourist hike each day. Here you seldom will see another person all day. There was one other group of hikers down here today and we talked briefly with them. They were with the Grand Canyon Trust (a great environmental group that we belong to). We went up river for awhile, enjoying the shade and the cool water. Most of the walking at this point would be in the water. We passed a few side canyons, including one that was appropriately named Fat Man’s Misery. You had to be thin to squeeze through this tight little slot.

We then turned back and hiked to the other end of the canyon, where it was much more narrow. There were a few dropoffs and finally we came to Labyrinth Falls, a tall and wide waterfall that you could only rappel down. We didn’t, if for no other reason it was closed to the public from here on down. The reason it was closed, there are some Native American relics along this stretch of the river. This was where the Anasazi Indians made baskets, the Basket Makers, and there were some of these still preserved and the National park didn’t want anyone down there stealing or disturbing these relics.

We then headed back up to the rim and back to where our packs were. We had the whole areas for miles to ourselves, enjoyed a classic desert sunset and night under the stars.

On the way back to our car the next day, we saw a helicopter cruising around over our heads. We were wondering if there was a search going on for a lost hiker. Turned out as we approached Checkerboard Mesa that a wildfire had broken out on top of the Mesa, and they were trying to put out the fire.