What lies behind Bridge Mountain?

I was supposed to take a trip with Mark Nydell and camp up on the Southeast Slickrock area of Zion near Bridge Mountain. That did not work out. Mark had a job interview and had to bail on me. I decided to head out anyway and do it as a long day hike instead. I set out early and headed up Gifford Wash. It was a cool October day and Gifford usually has quite a bit of water in it. Attempting to keep my feet dry was going to be in vain unless I got out of the canyon earlier. 

I took a look at the slickrock that rose above me and thought that it would probably go. Bad idea and I knew it after not too long. Although beautiful views of such peaks as the East Temple were starting to open up to my eyes, the going was becoming ever so much more difficult. I was scrambling from ledge to ledge. At one place, I stood there for fifteen minutes kicking myself for getting into this kind of predicament. 

I had been out of Gifford Canyon before and thus knew that there was an easy way out. Oh well, I had to deal with it, so I got some momentum behind me and was able to pull myself up the nearly vertical face to a ledge that took me to the north around the peak I was on and then with a short scramble, to the top. The picture above is the East Temple from the top of the peak, a one of a kind view in the Park. I could also see my final destination, Bridge Mountain with the West Temple and the Towers of the Virgin behind it. 

From here, the way was still not easy. I had to go south, off the peak I was on and to the second canyon running east that would send me directly into Hepworth. I found the huge bowl that they were talking about. I had to do some interesting down climbing at places to get around obstacles. Soon, though, I was in the elusive Hepworth Canyon. I would estimate a dozen people at most each year get to see Hepworth Canyon. I was still off to explore, though. 

I walked down Hepworth to the back side of Bridge Mountain. There are three different options when looking at the gullies that come off of Bridge Mountain. I knew that the middle one took you into some fifth class climbing where a rope was needed. It was also the way out to see Bridge Mountain Arch. This is everyone's usual destination when coming to this point. I decided that I needed a partner to go out there, so I left that for another day. I did, however, scramble up the first gully I saw. It led me to some incredible views. I could see down onto the road that switchbacks up toward the tunnel above Pine Creek. I was able to get so many one of a kind pictures of Zion on a day like this. I had views of the cliffs that most people would never be
lucky enough to see. I went back down that gully and with still enough time, I decided to scramble around and see what the far gully had to offer. I was expecting to get cliffed out at some point. I didn't though. With just some third class scrambling, I was able to access the bowl right next to Bridge Mountain. The

views were incredible. I could see straight up Oak Creek, Springdale, Rockville, my house, the visitor center, etc... The whole main canyon area was right before me, just two thousand feet below me. I felt so lucky and I wanted to keep exploring. The top of Bridge Mountain seemed so close I could almost touch it. It was 4th class at best, so I knew that I would have to come back with a climbing partner if I wanted to attempt that. There was a canyon running west that basically met up with Hepworth. Looking at my watch and down into this spectacular, undisturbed, pristine country, I decided that this day required me to head back to the house at this point. I took one last picture of me with the Towers of the Virgin at my back and decided to head on down from there. This was a good idea, as I knew the going was not going to be easy. It went a lot faster knowing the way that I came. Soon I was back with the predicament of how to drop into Gifford Wash. With all the slickrock around me, who could tell. I ended up following a cairned trail, that dead ended. I picked my way down from there to a point where I had to make a decision. So I threw my pack on down, which happened to land in some water (sweet) and then managed to work my way down ending in a jump where I knew I could not get back up from where I came. Looking around the corner, it looked like I would not have to be a SAR victim on this day, thank goodness. I found my way into Gifford and from there it was a soggy walk home through the muddy quicksand of Gifford Wash. As a final side note, it was very fortunate that Mark backed out because the next day, the rains were torrential and it would have made for dangerous conditions in the area that I was scrambling around in Zion's pristine zone.