Northgate Trail on Kolob Terrace
Avoiding the high temperatures and large crowds in Zion Canyon on Memorial Day weekend was our goal, and getting out to Kolob Terrace was the solution.
Kolob Terrace, located north of the town of Virgin and a 10 minute drive from Springdale and Zion’s main entrance, is a gorgeous highlands overlooking the mesa into which the Zion Canyon is cut. It’s a lesser known, and less visited part of Zion National Park.
A 21-mile drive up Kolob Terrace Road ascends over 4,000 feet to an alpine forest, with scenery more like the Rockies than the desert Southwest. It’s always 15-20 degrees cooler there.
We walked the nice, easy 4.4 mile Northgate Peaks trail …
From the viewpoint, we looked at the North Guardian Angel (on the left) and the Northgate Peak (on the right), which overlooks the famous Subway hike in the Left Fork of the North Creek …
Here’s looking down into Wildcat Canyon, which is the entrance to the Subway hike from the top down …
Lunch was enjoyed sitting on lava rocks near the trailhead, looking down on the Kolob Terrace Road …
We also stopped at Lava Point, named because of all the lava rocks!
There is a sweeping 7,890 foot viewpoint, where we could pick out some of the features in Zion Canyon, e.g. the North Guardian Angel, where we had just been on the Northgate Peaks trail, the West Temple overlooking Springdale, the Zion Canyon, and the entrance to The Narrows.
When you visit Zion National Park, be sure to see more than just the main Zion Canyon; take half a day and visit Kolob Terrace, too!