Zion-West Rim Campsite

[powderglut]

This will be the second part of our trip. (last of April/start of May) My wife is pushing for an overnite West Rim hike instead of a full week over on House Rock Valley Rd. (3-4 days instead). If you had a choice of campgrounds (4 people, maybe 6) on the trail for a nite, does one standout over another? Favorite? Best view? Reserve it?

 

[Nick]

Seems like there are pros and cons to most of them, but I think I'd isolate 8, 6 and 1/2 as the best spots. Here's why:

8 is right by the Potato Hollow spring but tucked around the corner and well off the trail. The views from camp aren't all that spectacular but walk a hundred yards and you're standing at a sheer 800-foot drop into Imlay. Very nice. Not packing tons of water to camp also very nice.

6-3 are all fairly similar in that they are up high on Horse Pasture Mesa with epic views. 6 is a little closer to the big edge and is quite a bit less walking from Potato Hollow spring than than 5-3 so it won't hurt so much to dry camp. Also nice to not be able to see your neighbors as 6 is tucked away by itself while 5-3 are within site of each other.

I didn't stop in and look at sites 1-2 but they are both very close to Cabin spring so that puts them on the list of desirable camps, IMO. The only bummer is that you have to get through so much of the trail that first day.

I'll be trying to score site 6 for my next West Rim trip later this year.

Imlay Canyon from near site 8:

The view near site 6 (very similar view a short walk from sites 5-3)

The view about 50 yards from Camp 4:

So I guess you really can't go wrong...

 

[pixie1339]

My brother and I camped at site 6 last year. It was a great site, spacious, private, with amazing views just a short walk away from camp. My only complaints were that you have quite a bit of uphill between Potato Hollow and Site 6, which was a grunt after loading up on enough water to get through to Cabin Spring the next day, and that you have a 10 mile day ahead of you the next day by stopping here. I think the next time I do this trail I would like to camp at site 1 or 2. It would be nice to be close to water, and from there you have about 7 miles to go the next day. Not having to log as many miles would probably make the descent day less painful.

 

[Jammer]

I'm a fan of 5 or 6.

I don't have the list right now, but some of the camps can be reserved and some are only available for last-minute walk ins. If I remember correctly, there are stipulations on group size for some of the camps which can be reserved as well (ie small groups can't reserve the big camps and vice versa.)

- Jamal

 

[Nick]

This map has a list of which can be reserved online and how many people each site accommodates:

http://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/upload/WildernessMap.pdf