Hi Beth! That’s a great idea to add better directions to the East Mesa Trailhead. I will make those changes 🙂 Thanks for the feedback, it’s always much appreciated!

Hi Rhett. I’m sorry you had a bad experience on your trip to Observation Point and didn’t find this article useful. My goal at Well Planned Journey is to provide inspiration for your national park trips and I only write about places I have personally hiked or experienced. This article was written a while back and I’ve tried my best to keep it up to date and reflect the latest closures and conditions. Since I don’t work for Zion National Park, it is difficult for me to keep all posts up to date with the latest conditions (especially in Winter as snowmelt can dramatically impact conditions). That’s why I always recommend checking with the local park service as they will be the most informed. That said, I appreciate your feedback and will include more detail in the post on potential road conditions to East Mesa Trailhead. All in all, I sincerely hope you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip to Zion outside of a bad experience visiting Observation Point.

This article was not helpful at all. I talked to several Park rangers about Hidden Canyon, Echo Canyon, and Weeping Rock and all of them said that there are no plans to reopen those trails anytime soon and then it could probably be 7 to 10 years before it even opens. I tried following your advice to get to the East Mesa trailhead and got my car stuck in thick peanut butter like mud. Before you attempt to write an article maybe you should do better research or go hike it yourself.

Glad you found the article helpful. Fingers crossed that the route to Observation Point from Weeping Rock will open soon!

Hi Derek, The usual trail to Observation Point starting at Weeping Rock shuttle stop is closed right now due to the rock slide you mentioned. You can still get to Observation Point from the East Mesa Trailhead that starts starts in another area of the park. The shuttle doesn’t go to this trailhead, so you’ll need to drive your own car (and the road is rough so an SUV is needed). It’s actually a bit easier hike to the exact same final viewpoint, but not quite as scenic. Here’s the AllTrails listing for that trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/utah/east-mesa-trail-to-observation-point

All in all, it’s not as good of a hike as the trail to Observation Point from the Weeping Rock Trailhead, but there’s no announcement yet on when that trail will reopen (along with the trails to Hidden Canyon and Weeping Rock).