Fall 2024 Back to the Southwest, 10.19.24 - 11.13.24, Part 8, Zion National Park/Crawford Overlook, UT
Happy Halloween! Yes, we had started this trip on October 19th and now it was the last day of the month. One of the stranger things about traveling so late in the year which is also one of the nicer things are the times the sun comes up and goes down. When traveling into May, the sun rises as early is 6:15AM and sets as late as 8:30PM. That can make it a super early alarm to get up and out and drive and/or hike to a sunrise spot. On Halloween the sun didn’t rise until 7:56AM so it was a lot easier to get up and get ready.
I wanted to be up high on the rocks as early as possible for this hike so I was out before the sun rose. The sun began to kiss the top of the canyon walls just as I was driving up the switchbacks towards the Mt. Carmel tunnel so of course I had to stop at a couple of pullouts and get a few photos.
Sunrise in Zion National Park
Sunrise in Zion National Park
Sunrise in Zion National Park
Mike was camping on the east side so we met at a small pullout just north of of Cockeye Falls, which didn’t have any water at this time of year. Bridgit took the day off since I had warned her this hike would likely be more than she would be up for. Our goal was to reach a spot called Crawford Overlook. This would be a journey into the wild back country of the park. There were no signs and no trails. I had done a lot of research but nothing could prepare me for what a complex hike this turned out to be. Mike and I have been hiking together for fifty years and it took two different navigation apps, maps with routes drawn on them, written information about how to get there and all of our instincts just to FIND Crawford Overlook. It also turned out to have much more elevation gain and loss than I expected. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The route map I used
Just as the sun rose we dropped down from the road into the wash of Clear Creek. Instead of staying in the wash, we immediately began to climb up above the other side onto a hillside of moderately steep slickrock. We gained a bit of altitude quickly and the views began to expand right away.
The view from where we parked. We started off climbing onto the slickrock hillside.
Up onto the slickrock
Looking back to where we parked from the slickrock hillside
Now that we were up on the slickrock, we started climbing in a southerly direction up a forested canyon. We stayed left of the canyon proper and aimed for a high point at the top.
Working our way up to the gap
When we reached the top of the gap the terrain leveled off. Now we could see three peaks to our left called The Triplets and a peak to the right called Lost Peak. Our plan was to curve to the right and climb up in between those two peaks. To get there we left the flatter terrain and climbed up onto a huge hill of slickrock on our right. This involved a fairly steep climb at first and then it eased up and turned into a stunningly beautiful section of rainbow colored slickrock. I loved this section as it was easy to ascend and the views back to the north across Hwy 9 of the sun lighting up the peaks was just exquisite.
Approaching the gorgeous slickrock section
The Triplets on the left and Lost Peak on the right. We headed up onto the slickrock and veered right towards Lost Peak.
Climbing onto the slickrock below Lost Peak.
The colors in the rock through this section were amazing!
As we hiked higher, the peaks to the north looked better and better
Beautiful layers of rock beneath Lost Peak
Just a perfect morning for this hike!
As we made our way through this beautiful section of slickrock, we also continued to climb between the Triplets and Lost Peak until we finally came to a high point right in between the two peaks. Here the terrain changed dramatically. We left the slickrock and entered a wide area of scrub oak, sage and cactus. The oaks were showing some good color. This area gently sloped downhill and the ground became more sandy.
We knew we needed to continue to the south so we aimed for a pine tree off in the distance because it looked like we would get a better view of what lay beyond from there. When we reached the pine tree we were surprised to find a sandy wash running east/west and on the other side we came to another slope of slickrock. Continuing south over the slickrock, we eventually arrived on the edge of a high bluff. The view from this vantage point was incredible. We weren’t too sure of exactly what we were looking at, but it looked wild and gorgeous in all directions.
One of the Triplets as we passed between the two peaks
Looking back. We came between Lost Peak on the left and The Triplets on the right.
The slickrock beyond the sandy wash. Straight ahead was the cliff edge of the bluff.
Mike surveying what lay ahead
Now that we had a wide-angle view of the area to the south, we spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what exactly we were looking at. We read the information I had copied to my phone, we looked at both of our navigation apps and we still weren’t sure where Crawford Overlook was. I thought it might be a peak to the left of us but we weren’t sure. We finally came to the correct conclusion that we still couldn’t even see Crawford Overlook. We realized that we still had to descend a good amount of elevation down into the wash in front of us which we decided was the east fork of Crawford Wash. From there we had to follow the wash down a bit, then climb a very steep slickrock chute up into a bowl, climb up and around the head of the bowl and then climb up and over the peak above the bowl before we would even get to a vantage point to see the overlook.
Looking southwest from the top of the bluff at what we think were called The Lobster Tails
What I first thought might be Crawford Overlook turned out to be Paranuweap Peak. In this photo you can see a huge gash on the right corner of the peak. We ended up dropping down to the base and climbing a steep chute just around the left side of the gash between the trees on the left and the orange rock on the right. Near the top of the huge gash you can see a white flat platform. From the top of the steep chute we climbed, we found a natural sidewalk that traversed around the head of the bowl to that platform. From the platform we then had to climb up and over the peak just to the right of the actual summit. That’s when we got our first view of Crawford Overlook.
Once we finally determined what we needed to do, we had to get down to the bottom of the east fork of Crawford Wash from up on the edge of the bluff. We could have gone either way but the slickrock on the east side of the bluff between us and the Lobster Tails looked fun so that’s the way we went. There were a few steeper sections but it really wasn’t too bad and soon we were down in the wash. We followed the bottom of the wash for a short distance and then came to the base of our steep slickrock chute. All I can say is “Thank God for Vibram soles”! This chute was about as steep of an angle that we could climb. It didn’t feel treacherous, but you really had to think about what line you wanted to take. After climbing a good way, we did indeed come to where it opened up into a wider bowl. This matched the description we had in our written beta so I was starting to feel like we were still on track. The easiest route to the top of the bowl was to our left and near the top of the bowl we found a really nice natural ramp we followed that wound all the way around to the right side of the bowl and led to a fantastic white platform with a great view of where we had just come from. It was also straight above the steep slickrock chute we had just climbed and it looked even harder from above!
The base of the slickrock chute below Parunaweap Peak
Looking back from the white platform. The top of Lost Peak is just left of center. Our bluff is just to the right of center. We descended into Crawford Wash below Lost Peak.
Lost Peak and the Triplets in the background. The bluff in front of the Triplets. We descended to the wash to the left of the bluff as you’re looking at it. The bottom of the slickrock chute is at the very bottom of the photo below Lost Peak.
Great shot of Mike on the white platform. The bluff is right behind him and our route down to the wash is just to his left as you look at it.
Now that we had made it to the white platform at the top of the chute, the info we had said to climb over the top of Parunaweap Peak. We couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just go around the corner until we realized that the giant gash went all the way up the peak and certainly didn’t have a spot to cross it. So up we went. We did manage to work our way around the corner just below the summit and there it was - Crawford Overlook in the distance!
To get there was still no picnic. First we had to figure out just how to get down off the other side of Parunaweap Peak. That was via a steep rocky cliffy thing but really not too bad. Then we came to a group of white rocks that were all jumbled together. We managed to do a little bushwhack to get down and around the white rocks but then there were even more. At this point we dropped even lower down to a sandy wash and traversed around the rocks until we were on the side of Crawford Overlook. From there it was a steep, loose scramble up top the top of the ridge and then just a short walk to the tip of the overlook. But what the? We had climbed the final hump just before Crawford Overlook! It turned out you couldn’t even see the true overlook until you got to this point. To get to the true overlook, we would have had to climb back down off the hump we were on, traverse over to the next ridge and follow it out to the point of the real Crawford Overlook. That would have taken maybe a half hour each way. Looking at our watches, it was now 1:30PM. On this day, the sunset time was 6:34PM. It had taken us five hours to get to this point. This was some of the wildest country I had ever hiked in and the last thing I wanted to do was try to hike back out in the dark. It was an easy decision to call it here.
So why did we even come here? From our vantage point we now had a commanding view looking up and down the east fork of the Virgin River Gorge. We hadn’t seen even one person the entire day and we were in a very remote and very wild part of Zion National Park. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Our first view from near the summit of Parunaweap Peak of what we thought was Crawford Overlook, but was really our final hump which blocks the view of Crawford Overlook.
Our descent line off the back of Parunaweap Peak
The white rocks below Parunaweap Peak
Looking back up at the back side of Parunaweap Peak
We found some mighty strange rocks near the white rocks section
The real Crawford Overlook from our final resting place
Looking east up the east fork of the Virgin River Gorge
Pano showing Lost Peak and the Triplets on the left and the east fork of the Virgin River Gorge on the right.
Crawford Overlook and the east fork Virgin River Gorge
Well as John Wayne once said, “We’re burnin’ daylight”. Knowing we had an arduous trek back, we didn’t dilly dally for too long on our non-Crawford hump. We had recorded our route on Gaia as backup to our amazing navigational sense so we started the journey back. We didn’t have any trouble staying on our line but I was really dragging on the way back so it took a bit longer than I had hoped. The sun was getting low by the time we got back to the vehicles.
Back at the white platform looking down the slickrock chute. If it looks steep it’s because it is!
Another epic hike to celebrate fifty years of hiking together
Hoodoo along the route back
Working our way back between the two peaks
Coming down through the beautiful multi-colored section
Late afternoon light as we get near the end
My dinner
This hike really pushed the boundaries of my skills as a hiker. The route finding was very complex and I was glad Mike and I had the ability to wade through the information we had and agree on a plan of action that turned out to be correct. It wasn’t the most miles I’d ever done (I think we went seven miles round trip) and it wasn’t even close to the total elevation gain I’ve done (we did a total of 1,877’ of gain combined), but these were challenging miles in a very wild place. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I had circled this as one of the highlights of our entire trip and it definitely lived up to the hype.