The main canyon of Zion National Park is a very busy area with many visitors flooding the buses and trails on either side of the Virgin River.    The vertical walls of Zion Canyon allow for only a few points of entry, zigzagging up the slickrock on ledges to hanging canyons above, or into the river at the Narrows.   But this is only a small part of the park.   We can access routes by driving to higher points on the Kolob Terrace, in the Kolob Canyons, or by driving on SR9 through the tunnel to the east side of the park.

the drive on Highway SR9 through the tunnel and beyond to the eastern gate of the park is arguably the most scenic drive in the southwest.   there are not many parking spots along this road and only one designated trail, but there are many possible routes up canyons and across slickrock ramps and ledges.   Checkerboard Mesa is one of the prime tourist stops along this road, but access is steep and challenging.   We hiked/scrambled  to the top in 2013.   In 2015, we hiked around Checkerboard Mesa on a canyoneering route of Fat Man’s Misery.

In 2018 we decided to follow the route to Fat Man’s Misery but only hike the slickrock routes of Misery Canyon (the route we hiked out from the river below in 2015).

The access route is a long, deep, narrow canyon between Checkerboard Mesa and Crazy Quilt Mesa. Some of the 2 km canyon route is a hike, but much of it involves some light scrambling too.

On the south side of Checkerboard Mesa a vast area of slickrock slopes allows access east and west.    We angled across a series of shallow gullies and we traversed across ridges.

We spotted the arch high on the back side of Checkerboard Mesa along this route.

A number of moqui marbles and other concretions were found on the slickrock ramps above Misery Canyon.   Moqui marbles are sandstone balls or rolls cemented by a harder layer of iron oxides.

The best parts of hiking the area are open routes across the red or white sandstone slopes above the Parunuweap Canyon below.

At the point where the route drops steeply down to the river are a number of “haystack” hoodoos.   From that point it is about a kilometer of hiking and scrambling down.   Progress upstream or downstream is done by wading in the river through Parunuweap Canyon.

Instead of dropping to the river, we wandered across the slickrock, enjoying the views and the warmth of a clear October day.   We crossed these sand dune ripples now solidified into sandstone on our traverse.

After 2 hours of wandering across the slickrock, we worked out way back to the deep canyon.   In the afternoon, the sun was shining through a few trees and shrubs on the slopes of Crazy Quilt Mesa.

In the deep canyon there were many maple trees and other colorful shrubs, now lit by the afternoon sun as we worked our way out through the 2 km route back to the trailhead.

The route to Misery Canyon requires a fair amount of navigation, but with some hard work, it offers a day of exploration on the slickrock slopes above the East Fork in the remote southeast corner of Zion National Park.

There are articles on Fat Man’s Misery and Checkerboard Mesa on this website too.