Misery Canyon Adventure Hike

I hiked Misery Canyon with a group of hard-core canyoneers recently. It was a great adventure hike through a technical slot canyon on the east edge of Zion National Park. “Technical” means you need specialized skills and gear to get through. We had a great time rappelling into dark holes, scrambling over chockstones and sliding down ledges. It took about nine hours of hard hiking to get through.

The slot dumps hikers into the East Fork of the Virgin River, in Parunuweap Canyon. Parunuweap is much like the famous Virgin River Narrows, only it is more narrow, more rugged and more beautiful. The stream was running high and muddy and it was difficult to hike/wade through it.

In summer stream flows come down and conditions become optimum for adventure hikes through Zion’s water-filled canyons. This website has good info on such hikes.

I lugged a video camera through Misery. This link should pull up my Misery clip (Flash video, 2.9M).

We’re still playing with video clips, trying to determine the best way to include them on this website. Please let me know if you have comments or suggestions.
- Dave Webb (davewebb@utah.com)