Zion National Park Historic Trails System, East Rim Trail, Springdale

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER UTAH,27-SPDA.V,1C-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The lower two miles of the East Rim Trail was associated with the Draw Works lumbering activity, Researcher: James Jurale September 5, m Zion National Park Historic Trails System, East Rim Trail HAER Wo. UT-40-C (Page 2) Starting e.t the Weeping Rock parking area and ending at Observation Point, the East Rim Trail is four miles long and climbs feet. The original trail-route was used by prehistoric peoples and waa improved by pioneer rancher John Winder in David Planigan utilized the lower two miles of this route (before the Cable Mt. Trail turnoff), when he built the cableworks to lower lumber into Zion Canyon from Cable Mountain in As the weak link in the short-cut route between Orderville and St.

George by way of Zion Canyon, the trail was barely passable when Mukuntuweap (Zion) Canyon waa established as a national monument in National Park Service crews worked to improve the trail in the winter of (the year the name of the area was changed to Zion National Monument) and in the spring of (the year the area was designated as Zion National Park). Thus, the trail was one of the first to be improved in the park. With the completion of the West Rim Trail in however, the East Rim Trail became overshadowed by its cross-canyon rival. Heavily damaged by torrential rains in July it was not repaired despite the availability of regional emergency reconstruction funds.

Zion National Park personnel determined it, "would be wiser to do a good job on the West Rim Trail than to spread the money too thin and do only a temporary job on both routes." It was not until that the trail was repaved, retaining walls reconstructed, and drainage repairs accomplished. In its four-mile course, the trail climbs steadily up the slope to Echo Canyon, on to the east rim of the plateau and to Observation Point situated on the Temple Cap Formation. Cut into Navaho Sandstone Cliffs, for the most part, portions of the trail, which provides access to a number of other east rim plateau trails, contain representative examples of random rubble rock work, Bibliography Woodbury, Angus. A History of_Squtharn Utah and ij^National Parks, 19 50. Zion National Park.

"Zion National Park Completion Reports," Zion National Park. "Encyclopedia," Part I, #