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Canyoneering Route Description

Lodge Canyon - 4A IV R
Zion National Park, Utah

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Pictures 5-16-09

Quick Facts

05-16-09, 6 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 11.1 hours)

Time, distance and rating given with included side trips to MOS and a cool cave.
Distance - 4.6 miles Total, 1.3 miles Technical
Rappels - 6 Rappels, Longest Rappel 200 feet.

See the Canyoneer Trip Report Explanation Notes page for an explanation of how the technical mileage is determined.

Gear Used for Canyon

Rappelling and anchor gear, two 200 foot ropes, 200 foot pull cord (incase a rope is stuck) and 70 feet of 1” webbing for sling placement.

See the Canyoneer Trip Report Explanation Notes page for an explanation of how the gear used list is determined.

General Comments

Lodge Canyon ends at the Zion Lodge near the employee housing so it is known as Lodge or Employee Canyon. Lodge Canyon has a long approach and a short technical section.  What helps make this a good route are a couple side trips along the way. 

The first side trip is to the peak of Mountain of the Sun with incredible views from the peak.  The views from MOS is worth the time to take the side trip!  If you have done or plan to do Behunin, you will enjoy the great view of that route from the top of MOS.  The other side trip is a few hundred feet off the main canyon floor to a side slot / cave.  The cave has a sandy bottom which is a good place to take a break.  What makes the cave a great spot to visit is how cool it gets.  Before you get there you can feel the air temps dropping fast.  If it is a warm day you will enjoy a quick stop in the cave since temps feel about 15 degrees cooler in there.  It is truly mind boggling how much it feels like a cold air conditioned room as you enter the cave.

It would be very easy to get your ropes stuck on some of the rappels on this route.  Be careful as you set up each rap and pay attention to your rope and pull line as you descend.  Before the last person goes down it is a good idea to have people below do a test pull to see if the pull will go smooth.  The anchor webbing at rappel 5 is set long.  This is needed to get the rope past multiple obvious pinch points.  The long anchor makes it difficult to start the rappel (see route description).

The technical section of this route is short with all 6 rappels squeezed in over a distance of less than 500 feet.  Raps 4, 5 and 6 are what make this canyon a level 4.  Pay attention to what you are doing on these rappels.

Getting to the Trailhead and Exit Vehicle (Escape Pod) Parking

To get to the Trailhead

Driving East on highway 9 in Zion National Park, go through the tunnel.  As you exit the tunnel heading east, there will be a parking area on the right with restrooms (the trailhead for Pine Creek).  From this parking area, continue about 0.4 miles east on highway 9, to two turn outs on the left (north) side of the road.  The first turn out will fit one car and the second will fit two cars parked close.  The trail leaves the road a short distance west of the west most turn out.

To leave the Exit Vehicle / Escape Pod

A second vehicle can be left at the Zion Visitor Center.  After exiting the canyon take the shuttle to the visitor center to the exit vehicle.

Maps

Map showing entire route.

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Map showing mostly the first section of Lodge Canyon and the side trips.

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Map showing mostly the second section of Lodge Canyon and the side trips.

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GPS Waypoint Information

Waypoint coordinates are given with the WGS84 datum and in Lat/Lon hddd° mm.mmm' format unless otherwise noted.

Details

The Approach:
 The trail leaving highway 9 is not marked and drops down a little from the side of the road to the north into a wide sandy wash (Pine Creek).  About 500 feet from the road will be a section of smooth rock with some potholes running down the middle of it (wSpryRP-1).  Go over the rock to the left of the potholes and continue up the sandy wash.  0.2 miles beyond the slick rock with potholes, is a section in the wash covered in rock debris from a rock fall (wSpryRP-2).    

0.6 miles from the trailhead is where you leave Pine Creek (wSpryRP-3).  To exit the Pine Creek wash, climb up the left (northwest) side of the wash along a section where the exposed layers of sandstone resemble stacked flag stone.  It starts out slightly slopped and quickly gets steeper and steeper as it turns to a more slick rock type area.  

About 600 feet after leaving Pine Creek, the steep climb levels off a bit (wSpryRP-4).  You will have a good view of the southern end of Deertrap Mountain at about 334°.  Continue northwest toward Deertrap Mountain.  

As you get closer to the southern end of Deertrap Mountain, look for a wide open slick rock bowl shaped ravine leading up and almost due west.  The bowl shaped ravine goes up over a few ledges along the way that require the occasional scramble to get up to the next ledge. As you continue up the bowl shaped ravine continue up the center and climb up the ledges.

After climbing one of the ledges about 0.2 miles up the bowl shaped ravine, will be a sloped section of white rock on the right (north) side.  The sloped section of white rock has layers that look like a set of stacked pancakes (wSpryRP-5). 

Go northwest out of the ravine by walking up the set of pancakes.  About 200 feet from the pancakes look for a deep looking slot.  To the left (west) of the slot will be a tall smooth vertical wall (wSpryRP-6).  At the base of this wall you should be able to easily find some petro glyphs on the wall.  The deep slot below the petro glyphs may be a good spot for a shady break depending on what time of day you are there.  

From the petro glyphs, follow up the slope to the north along the base of the wall the petro glyphs were on.  At the top of the slope, the terrain opens up a bit but keeps going up.  As you are in this area remember to look back the way you came.  The views that way are incredible.  Where the route tops out above the petro glyphs (jLodgeCynRte) is where a choice can be made to follow the Lodge / Employee Canyon or the Spry Canyon route.  

The remainder of this route description is solely for Lodge Canyon.

From the top out of the route after the climb up from the petro glyphs (jLodgeCynRte) continue north northwest about 0.2 miles to a wide white sandy area (wLodgeRP-1).  Follow a one of a few social trails north west another 600 feet or so to the top end of a ravine.  The ravine runs north to south with the top being at the north end.  Find your way down a few down a few small ledges to get down into the head of the ravine (wLodgeRP-2). 

Travel down the ravine (south) toward Spry Canyon.  About 350 feet down the ravine is a well travelled path (wLodgeRP-3) leading up and out of the ravine on the right (west) side.  Follow this path up out of the ravine.  The path leads out of the ravine and turns west into a more wide open area that slopes to the south.

Once in the wide open area on the slope, continue west traversing and working down to another sandy valley floor.  A few easy scrambles down some slopes will be required and maybe a little bushwhacking depending on what path you chose.

About 630 feet from where you left the ravine that leads to Spry Canyon, you should find yourself in a flat wash with a pinkish sandy bottom (wwLodgeRP-4).  Looking south will be a view of The East Temple and Spry Canyon and to the west should be a huge white wall.  The huge white wall is the east side of Twin Brothers.

From the sandy wash (wLodgeRP-4) travel north and climb up the ravine leading north between Twin Brothers and Deertrap Mountain.  After 500 – 600 feet the ravine will top out and begin to descend down the other side.  The top out of this ravine is labeled as the top entry to Lodge Canyon (yLodgeTp) on my maps.  From the top out of the ravine there is a good view north along the route you will be following down Lodge Canyon.  

The descent down the other side of the ravine reminded me of portions of Hidden Canyon with similar grade, bearing and vegetation.  There are a few down climbs along some slick rock and a little bush whacking in spots but easy travel over all.  

Once at the bottom, follow the canyon north.  The travel is easy down this deep section.  With the steep sides and lots of vegetation this section has a secluded scenic feel to it.  I especially enjoyed the dense patches of ferns.  

About 0.5 miles down canyon from the top of the pass is the junction to the Mountain of the Sun (jMOS).  The junction to Mountain of the Sun (MOS) is where the canyon starts to widen a bit and lose the tall tight feeling.  There are lots of places to drop your packs and enjoy a snack before continuing.

The Side Trips:
In my opinion this route must be done doing 2 side trips from this location.  The technical section of Lodge Canyon is challenging but very short.  Doing this canyon with no side trips would most likely leave you asking the question, “I did all that work to get here for that?”  Combining the 2 side trips with this canyon makes for a fun well rounded day and keeps you from feeling you didn’t get your money’s worth.  The 2 side trips are a hike to MOS and a quick walk over to a cave that will make you wonder where the air conditioner is hidden.  With that said, on to the side trips.  

From the junction to MOS, follow south up a slope along the west side of the canyon toward Twin Brothers.  The slope starts off a mix of rock and sandy patches and quickly begins to get steeper and turn to mostly rock.  As the slope continues up you will find there is a drop off on the left (east) into the main canyon and right (west) into another smaller slot.  Soon the drop offs are big on both sides and it feels like you are walking up the crest of a dragons back.  

About 0.25 miles from the canyon floor is the top of the dragon’s back (wMOS-RP-1).  At the top traverse over to the right (west) toward MOS.  About 200 feet after the traverse is a wide flat sandy area (wMOS-RP-2) with a view up MOS to the north west.  It is about 0.22 miles to the peak from this spot.  

From here we climbed up to the peak of MOS.  After looking it over on the way up and the way down, it is obvious there is more than one route up to the peak.  The route we chose had a few sketchy sections that may make some people uncomfortable.  I am not sure if the other routes up to the peak are as bad or not.  I am not going to recommend a good route to the peak.  If you stay on the south east side of MOS, you will find multiple possible routes that may be used to get to the peak.  It does look as though any route you choose will have some steep exposed sections for only a short distance.  Most of it is steep but not very exposed.  It will take some time to navigate up this section.  Our group took over an hour and a half to get to the peak from the top of the dragons back.  Don’t let this scare you off.  If you take your time it should not be hard to get to the peak up this steep section.  The views ARE worth it!!!!!!  Plan to take a few minutes on the peak, for a break and to enjoy the views.  If you have done or plan to do Behunin Canyon, you should really enjoy the view of that area from the peak.  

On the way back down from MOS, stop at the sandy spot before the traverse.  Turn south east and follow the flat sandy area about 0.2 miles to a huge sandstone rock bowl type area (sRockBowl).  This rock bowl is huge and a very cool thing to take time to look over.  If you continue a few hundred feet south east down the bowl you will get great views down to the road through Zion.   

When you have made it back down to the canyon floor, there is one more side trip to take.  This one is short and well worth the time if you want to get out of the heat for a minute and see something cool, literally cool!

From the junction to MOS you will see a side canyon on the west side of the main canyon you are in.  This canyon joins a few feet down canyon of the junction to mountain of the sun.  Travel about 300 feet up this side canyon to where it dead ends at a cave.  As you approach you can feel the air dropping in temperature rapidly.  When you get to the cave the air temperature will be about 15°F cooler than in the main canyon.  Sound too good to be true?  Check it out, you will be amazed.  After a cool down period in the cave it is time to continue down the main canyon to complete the route.

Back to The Approach:
Down canyon from the junction to MOS the canyon stays very wide, has a mostly sandy bottom and lots of vegetation to navigate around.  The water course winds quite a bit through here.  There are a few trails cutting up and over a banks to get a more direct route down canyon than following the water course.  

About 0.5 miles down canyon from the junction to MOS the canyon bottom has a wide open section of white sandstone (wLodgeRP-5).  When you see the white sandstone area you are almost to rap 1.  As you cross the sandstone and get near the other side you will notice a big drop off.  To get to rap 1 stay left and find a path in the sandy bank just above and down canyon from the drop off.  As you follow the path, look for a large pine with webbing slung on it to the right.

The Canyon / Technical Section:
Rap 1 is from a medium sized pine tree LDC.    A length of webbing is strung between the tree for rap 1 and a larger tree just above it.  The webbing makes a good hand line to get down to rap 1, since this is on a steep slope.  Another rap station is visible across the canyon from rap 1 but looked as though it would be a bit more precarious to get to.  

Rap 1 drops about 160 feet down a rock wall with a large ledge about half way down.  At the bottom of Rap 1 the canyon is deep and narrow again with high vertical walls on both sides.  

Rap 2 is about 60 feet down canyon of rap 1.  Rap 2 is anchored from 2 bolted chains LDC and drops about 170 feet down a vertical wall with lots of features all the way down.  It is a good idea to clip a safety line to the anchor as you are setting up for Rap 2.  The slope it is on would make it easy to make a mistake and slip off.  The bottom of Rap 2 is full of soft white sand.  

Rap 3 is about 70 feet down canyon of rap 2.  Rap 3 drops about 50 feet total with a vertical section midway down.  Rap 3 is anchored RDC from 2 bolt and hangers.  The start is a bit awkward since it drops down a tight section between a boulder and the canyon wall.  

Rap 4 is about 50 feet down canyon of rap 3.  Rap 4 is anchored RDC from 2 bolt and hangers about head high.  Do Not Go All The Way Down Rap 4.  Looking down from the top you can see a ledge on the right about 50 feet down.  That is where Rap 4 stops.  Below the ledge you can see a second set of anchors.  That second set of anchors is not the next rap station.  The drop from the second set of anchors will likely be longer than the length of rope you brought along!  

Rap 4 drops about 50 feet to a ledge on the right (east).  Once on the ledge walk around the corner to the right where you will find the set of anchors under foot for rap 5.  

Rap 5 is anchored from 2 bolt and hangers.  Rap 5 drops down a mostly vertical wall about 200 feet to a narrow ledge in a slot.  There are a lot of pinch points at the top of rap 5 where the rope can get caught while being pulled from below.  The webbing added to the anchors for the rap ring or rapid should be left long enough to bypass all those pinch points.  This will make getting on the rap difficult and dangerous.  

The method we used for Rap 5 was to pull the rope and webbing up to the top of the rap and attach the rope to the rappel device.  Another carabiner was added to the bolted anchors.  A second rope was tied into the carabiner with a munter hitch and was used to lower the person on rappel until all their weight was on the rappel rope.  When the person is fully weighted on the rappel rope the lowering rope was unclipped and pulled back up by those on top.  The last person was is on their own.  There are ample foot and hand holds to use while climbing down to weight the rappel rope.  It is much safer if only the last person needs to do this.  Remember to do a test pull before the last person goes down!  

Rap 6 is located a few feet from the bottom of rap 5.  Rap 6 is anchored from 2 bolt and hangers at foot level.  Rap 6 drops about 170 feet, most of which is free hanging and next to a low flow water fall in a grotto.  It is easy to get topes stuck on this rappel as well.  Be sure to do a test pull before the last person goes down and pay attention to were the ropes lay as you descend.  As far as scenery on a rap, Rap 6 is the one to look forward to on this route. 

The Exit:
After rap 6 hike down canyon to the employee housing area behind the Zion Lodge (this is why the canyon is known as Lodge and Employee Canyon).  We did not find an easy to follow route out of the grotto to the lodge, managed to get through the maze of social trails webbing all over the left (south) side of the canyon.  Find your way over to the main lodge and eventually the shuttle stop to complete the route. 

Links to Pictures are at the top of the page.

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