Canyon Overlook Trail

Surprisingly, Wednesday morning dawned and it looked and felt like rain! The weather radar showed showers passing over the east side of Zion National Park. We’ve been told that the locals come out to see waterfalls that appear at numerous spots on the canyon walls whenever rain comes. So we jumped in the car and drove out the Zion-Mount Carmel highway, through the tunnel towards the east side of Zion. But alas, while the radar showed rain, the super dry air caused all the rain to dissipate before reaching the ground.

Since we were out on the east side of Zion, we decided to hike the recently repaired and re-opened Canyon Overlook Trail. The trail is very popular, but since it was still early in the morning, it was not crowded yet. It’s short, not steep, and has a wonderful viewpoint looking west toward Canyon Junction in the main Zion Canyon. The trailhead is at the east end of the Zion - Mount Carmel tunnel. This is the last of the major/popular trails in Zion that we’ve yet to do during our stint here this year.

Bright green plants are growing at the seam between two rock layers here underneath this rock overhang.

Here’s the view from the overlook, looking down Pine Canyon towards Zion Canyon and the Canyon Junction shuttle stop.

You can see the Zion - Mount Carmel Highway winding its way up toward the tunnel entrance. There are six 180-degree hairpin turns between Canyon Junction and the tunnel entrance.

These clouds on the horizon looked like rain, but none was reaching the ground.

When we visited Zion National Park in 2019 with Nancy’s brother, Rich and his family, we hiked the Canyon Overlook Overlook trail, an unmarked trail from an East Zion trailhead that reaches a summit overlooking this Canyon Overlook viewpoint. Here’s Nancy pointing out the Canyon Overlook Overlook 450 feet above us.

It was a nice morning! While we didn’t see waterfalls from the rain, we got to hike this beautiful trail and see clouds!