LaVerkin Creek Trail

In May 2014, we did a three-day, two-night backpack trip on the LaVerkin Creek Trail in Zion National Park, Utah. It is in the less-visited western portion of the park.

We had done the first part of this trail before.

This time, rather than turning onto the Hop Valley Trail toward the West Rim Trail, we would be continuing up the creek.

The creek was inhabited by numerous frogs, some in the process of mating and laying eggs, and some still “looking for love.”

A worthwhile short side trip is Kolob Arch. Unfortunately, it is difficult to fully appreciate its true size because you can’t get very close to it and there is a canyon wall directly behind it.

Some choose to day hike to Kolob Arch, which is quite doable distance-wise. However, when day hiking, one is more limited by the lighting conditions, which can be less than optimal depending on the orientation of the feature. For example, the photo below was taken in the afternoon when day hikers would typically be there.

This photo was taken the next morning when John did the short hike from our campsite.

While camped along LaVerkin Creek, we did a short hike up Bear Trap Creek …

… to see Bear Trap Falls.

We also decided to day hike up Willis Creek.

However, it eventually became quite brushy and was not very scenic. We tired of it and went back to our camp.

We typically don’t do such short backpack trips, but we had been working on a project to hike every trail within Zion National Park. This trip put us one step closer to achieving that goal.

All photos from this trip are on Flickr.