I was expecting another brutally long and dangerous East side hike when I decided to do a hike leaving from an area referred to as Cockeye Falls. Instead, I found an easy day hike with some amazing views. The steepest part of the whole trip was the climb right near the road to gain the top of Cockeye Falls. From there, I followed a fairly well used track as this is a popular hike in a lot of local guides.
I varied between drainage and the area above the drainage until I ran into a rock wall. Looking at the map, I decided to go right as it looked to shoot me out to a flat area over the saddle. Was I right or what? I could not believe it as I never thought of the east side as having a flat area, but there was a big sandy plateau with animal tracks everywhere. There is a big allure to dropping into one of these canyons as soon as you see it, but after consulting my map, I realized that this trip would send me into Crawford Wash, where I have been before, if I took the canyon route.
Instead I stayed high on the plateau until I could not be on a sandy slope anymore. Then I looked to my right and saw an area with lots of hoodoos in it, so I went down there.
The sandstone structures were awesome and I even came across this incredibly narrow little slot which not even my slender wife could have fit into. Around the corner from the slot was a little downhill until Parunaweep looked right up at me and said hello. I was astounded as the trip out to this point had not taken me more than a couple of hours and I definitely was not in a hurry. I sat down to enjoy lunch as this was a money spot. When hiking back, I tried to hike at a comfortable pace and getting back to the car only took a little bit over an hour. This has got to be the shortest route and easiest to navigate for a view of Parunaweep on the entire East side of Zion.
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