West Rim Trail Run - Zions National Park
A while back I was talking to Stacey Bracken at the store (The St. George Running Center)about a 50 mile run her and a few of her friends had done from Lee's Pass trailhead in Kolob Canyon over to Zion's National Park. Since hearing about the experience I've wanted to go up and run portions of the trail and check it out and possibly, in the near future run the whole 50 mile traverse.
So, doing a little research online I found that Karl Meltzer had posted the whole Zion Traverse Run online along with some maps, pictures, video and some descriptions of the trail. From looking at the maps I figured the easiest portion of the 50 miles would be to run from the West Rim Trail down to the Grotto/ Zion Lodge. I knew it would be an elevation loss of 2400 ft , so I contacted the guys (Bill, Dave, Logan, Clyde, James, Mike, Bruce) and they were all up for an easy downhill run.
Highlights: I bailed and made some good noise coming down the hill. It's the first fall I've had running in years. Bill crashed as well (expected). Got smart comments from the hikers. Watching Clyde trip and alsmost fall 3 times in 20 seconds. Logan killing us on the uphill. Just overall good times. Katey (Logan's wife) being cool enough to drive - thanks Katey!
5 Star Run - This is on my list of top three all time runs.
I won't go into detail about the trail becuase you can view the info here:
Directions and Info on The West Rim Trail
Map of West Rim Trail
Some Nice Pictures of The West Rim Trail
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