Time of year: Mid-April
2 nights as the first portion of the Trans-Zion trail from Lee Pass to the Groto.
Distance: About 8.5 miles one-way.
Difficulty: Easy- very wide well-established trail that is well marked with all camps numbered with signs. Some up and down on the trail and some creek crossings.
Water is continually available once you have descended down to the creek which will take no more than an hour or two depending on speed.
Less Pass Trailhead consists of a series of parking spaces with a sign clearly marking the trailhead. You descend immediately down along a mixed rocky/dirt trail.
My hiking partner and I excitedly headed down the trail. We encountered several other hikers early in the day who were out day hiking to see the Kolob arch. We even trailed and criss-crossed for several hours with a small group of horse riders along the trail. The terrain and views are magnificent, with early spring flowers and tree buds at our boots and the gorgeous expanses of the canyon walls and peaks when we looked up. You certainly can’t help but feel intimidated and humbled when you first step onto the trail and look around and the cathedral-like expanses of stunning rock that surrounds you. The trail immediately enchants with lizards scrambling into the sunshine atop boulders, random butterflies and moths floating by on the breeze and an interesting varied landscape with new plants around every winding curve of the well-established trail as it heads down to the Creekside.
We passed along all of the camps during the course of the day, if your goal is to see and play near the arch, camps one and two are disappointingly too close to the Lee Pass trailhead; they appear to best serve those who are hiking out to Lee Pass and wish to spend one last night on the trail. All of the camps are very well established and will easily accommodate the group sizes that they are rated for. They all appear to have several clearing options for tents, logs/rocks arranged conveniently for sitting around your cook stove, the Creekside nearby for water, and trees for hanging food and shade. No campfires allowed. Camps 7 and 8 were very close together, ideal for multiple groups wanting to be close to each other and are near the water. Camps 9-12 are all close by the water. If I go back along this section of trail I would ask for Camp 10, it is near a tiny waterfall feature of the creek, it is on the opposite side of the creek from where the main trail travels and it is ideally situated to both reach the Kolob arch as well as continue onto the Hop Valley trail if going further on.
We spent two nights in Camp 12. It took us about 5 hours to go from the trailhead to Camp 12 including multiple stops to enjoy the scenery and to have water and food. Toward the end we did make multiple crossings of the creek which have many stepping stone options, but it was much easier to navigate the weight of the packs by using hiking sticks for stability when crossing. It was a very nice camp that met all of our needs with nice trees and close proximity to the creek. It was pocketed away more in the canyon than we expected making it late morning before the sun made it into our camp. We saved the arch for day two so we would have an exciting landmark to go explore when we woke up. The day two hike back to the arch over familiar trail was great fun and going to see the arch with lightly weighted packs and plenty of time made it feel a bit like a vacation within a vacation.
Once you turn off of La Verkin trail up toward the arch it is only another .5 miles until you get to the viewing area. The arch is still very far away and there are multiple trees that make it a bit obscured but it was still a neat feature to get to check out. We chose to continue on and hike the trail up the creek past the arch to find yet another small waterfall. It was fun tripping along the streambed exploring further afield, but in truth, there isn’t much change to the landscape as you continue. When we had our fill of the arch trail, we headed back to our camp, and I must admit it was great to head back knowing camp was already setup for us. We chose a leisurely afternoon of washing out our clothes, taking a creek bath and an early dinner. After dinner we donned our flip flops, and took a flip flop walk further up the trail toward camp 13, we chose to turn back after about a half hour as our footwear wasn’t ideal but did see even more glorious rock formations that really shone in the late afternoon light. The weather was amazing the first two days reaching the upper 70’s during the day and the low 40’s at night. The nights were cool with the sound of the creek soothing our weariness and the stars were stunning.
We turned in early knowing we needed to pack up early and head out of La Verkin the next day to tackle the longest stretch of our Trans-Zion journey the next day. While it was great fun having the same camp to come home to two days in a row, it would have shaved a good mile off of our longest stretch if we had moved from camp 12 down to 9 or 10 for the second night which are more closely situated near the Hop Valley trail head.
tamingthemilemonster 