The Crew: Becky, Dan, Terry, Heather, Ron, Scott
From Ron: The view of Lady Mountain from Zion Lodge. The blue line marks the route of the Lady Mtn Trail. The yellow circle marks our turnaround point. The term “Trail” is stretching the definition, for you do more climbing than hiking. It ascends the sheer walls of the canyon, from floor to rim, gaining 2,600 feet in elevation. Native Americans, dating back centuries to the Anasazi, used the route as a shortcut in and out of the canyon. In the steeper sections, they carved small footholds in the rock, called Moki steps. Most likely a few Mormon settlers made use of it in the 1800s, and surely there were adventurous souls at the turn of the century that had made ascents. But the route pretty much remained in this primitive state until 1923. That is when the National Park Service installed steel railings and cables at the more dangerous sections. A ladder was even constructed at a vertical cleft called The Chimney. The Lady Mountain Trail became the premier adventure outing in Zion—albeit a daring one—for decades to come. Unfortunately, maintaining it was a royal pain in the butt, and expensive. In addition, tourists frequently became stranded, gripped in terror by their lofty predicament, and had to be rescued. A few of them (at least two, probably more) even fell to their deaths. So by the late 1960s, the Park Service had had enough and shut it down.
