News Weeping Rock TH Zion

I’m looking at going through Mystery and Echo canyons in June. I will not have a shuttle for Mystery so I was looking at using Weeping Rock TH. The Zion NP website says it is closed because of the rockfall in August 2019. The most recent update is in August 2019. Is it still closed? Thanks


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It is closed indefinitely. It took 10 years for the Upper Emerald Pools trail to reopen after rockfall closed it. The rockfall on the section of the East Rim Trail that leads from Weeping Rock to Echo Canyon is much, much larger in scale. Last month I spoke to a park ranger about the trail status and he said to me "I don't expect it to be reopened in my lifetime." Now that is a bit of hyperbole in my opinion, but the point he was trying to get across is that it may take decades before it is reopened--assuming they decided not to permanently close it. He mentioned there is a massive amount of debris that would have to be cleared from the trail and even then the park is concerned about unstable rock producing further rockfall endangerment issues.

This isn't an official answer so take it for what its worth. But I do think, unfortunately, that the trail will at least be closed for a very long time.

https://www.zionadventures.com/zioneasterntrailheadshuttles.html

Echo you can do from the Stave Springs trailhead, and return up to the same.

Hi Tom, one of the owners of Zion Ponderosa told me they were closing the Observation Point trail head to public parking. He said they were now requiring the public to park at Zion Ponderosa lodge area and then take a shuttle to the trail head. He made it sound like they decided to do this due to people creating campfires near the trail head. I havent seen any discussion of this anywhere, so I thought I would share with the community that this has already happened or in the works.

The trailhead is on BLM land, so they cannot close parking there. Maybe a (working) AUSA should go have a talk with them... or the BLM Recreation planner guy at least. Or the solicitor for Zion Park.

Tom

Hi Tom,

In looking at a sat photo with public land overlay, it looks like some of the parking spaces are in Ponderosa and some are not. Either way, though unless the NPS has an easement (prescriptive or express), they can stop the public from traversing their land. However, his comment to me seemed to pertain only to parking on Ponderosa property. He did not say that they were trying to stop people from driving back there. But he did say the someone at the NPS was aware of what he was doing and they shared his concerns about camping and illegal campfires at the trailhead.

Jason

The final rappel in lower echo canyon was closed due to the trail below. If the trail is closed, is the last rappel allowed?

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The entire area at the base is closed to the public until further notice.

Tom

Maybe there is some confusion about which trailhead is being referred to. The East Mesa/Observation Point trailhead is on BLM land. The Stave Spring trailhead is on private land. That might be the trailhead the owner of the Ponderosa is referring to.

At the Ponderosa (we just stayed there for four days), there is a sign and parking by the lodge designated as trailhead shuttle for people going to Stave Springs.

The Stave Spring trailhead is inside the National Park Boundary.

Last year, the Ponderosa opened some parking near the East Mesa Trailhead, before the rutted hill. And people walked from there. They closed it this year and aggressively signed it. BLM did a bunch of work on the East Mesa Trailhead not too long ago. Fewer parking places, but they gravelled the road and did a good job of that.

Tom

Interesting. For what it's worth we drove to the East Mesa Trailhead yesterday and saw no signage to keep out.

(at the risk of stating the obvious...) The Trailhead is on BLM land. BLM improved the parking lot. The Ponderosa has no jurisdiction over the trailhead parking lot.

The road that leads to the trailhead is on private Ponderosa land. It is, these days, lined with 'no trespassing' signs, chains and ropes. A sign near the road's beginning claims that there is no parking and you have to take the (pay) shuttle from the Ponderosa activity barn. (Which is false).

Unless it has changed in the last 10 days...

Tom

We didn't see (or at least didn't notice) any such signs, but I assume we must have took a slightly different driving route since we were already staying at the campground there.

Looking to do Echo and want to park at stave springs. Just to clarify. Can one drive to the stave springs parking lot and park without issues from Ponderosa Ranch. Is there an access issue to the parking lot? Thanks

Follow the signs for Cable Mountain, though it also helps to have directions or a map. The last bit right at the park boundary is a bit of a ledge and high clearance / 4WD is helpful, especially climbing up = going out. There are about 10 spaces which are inside the Park. I have never seen it full.

There is not an access issue, except for the ledge that discourages some, so they park on the Ponderosa and piss off the local residents.

Tom

This seems to be a promising sign that they are planning on clearing the rock fall that has closed Weeping rock TH in the near future.

https://acquisitiongateway.gov/forecast/resources/5305

This has been there for a while. Notice it says planning stage and estimated award is quarter 3 2023. It does not appear this is going to happen as planned. Plus, The procurement process for a project this large can be time consuming and this just clears debris. There are additional hurdles after.

Notice I said promising sign, and also planning in my description.

I did notice that you said that. But I also noticed you said planning on clearing the rock fall in the near future. Planning to clear it in the near future and being in the planning stages of the procurement process are two extremely different things in my experience as a federal employee with government contract procurement experience. I do not think the conclusion that it will be cleared in the near future is warranted based solely on the link you provided.