Zion: Northgate Peaks (East)

The Northgate Peaks hike begins at the Wildecat Canyon Trailhead (you can also reach The Subway from this trailhead). We found it in one of the trail hiking books and it sounded rather fun. A shorter hike with awesome views into the valley - and it even ended on a lava rock outcropping. Very cool.

I googled it just to see if I would like the pictures and that's when I found the Protrails.com guide which explained how to go beyond the lava rocks, hack through to a social trail, and scurry up (quite quickly) to the top of the slickrock East Northgate Peak following nothing but cairns and stones laid out in arrows.

It was fantastic!

The first part of the hike to the lava trail is relatively easy. Starting at the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead you walk on the mesa passing the junction for the Hop Valley Trail. Shortly after that you will come to the Northgate Peaks Trail. It's a right turn on to that trail and you will now be heading south towards the gulch and canyon. From there the trail will take you all the way to the lava rock formation. Right before reaching it you will see gorgeous views of East and West Northgate Peaks and the Guardian Angel.

This is where we continued on, past the guide book and into the land of ProTrails. I did a little research and found that West Northgate Peak is considered a Class 3 scramble (it looked it!) and East Northgate Peak is a Class 2 Scramble. Or as I like to describe it: it's about 250 feet ascending relatively quickly on slickrock. :D

From the lava formation look to the left and find the social trail winding down towards the base of the slick rock. Once there, follow the cairns and stone arrows to the top. Just be careful; you will be rewarded!

 Hike details:

Total Distance: 5.1 miles

Total Time: It took us about 3.5 hours or so. Lollygagging.

Elevation Change: +528 ft round trip, 174 ft net elevation gain.

Starting Elevation: 6,985 ft. 

Ending Elevation: 7159 ft.

Hiked on Sunday, September 9, 2012.