Cable Mountain has, in my opinion, the best views of anywhere in Zion National Park. The view down on Angels Landing, The Organ, and Big Bend are amazing!
We left the house at 9:00 and after arriving at Zion and getting on the Shuttle, we arrived at the Weeping Rock stop, the start point for the East Rim trail and Cable Mountain, at 10:30.
We started quickly up the trail and I was quickly informed of Matthew's desire to do both Cable and Deer Trap mountains, and, if we had time, Observation Point. Knowing that Cable Mountain by it's self is 15.5 miles, I had to wonder if maybe time would change his mind...
We made our way up the switchbacks to Echo Canyon and did a little exploring there. I had explored Echo Canyon just a couple weeks earlier and had to wade through a couple of deep pools of water. It was amazing that one of those pools had completely dried up and another was significantly lower in just 2 weeks!
We continued on until we came to the turn off to Cable Mountain which is marked by a sign. Prior to getting to the junction, we looked up and saw the cable works not too far away. It was frustrating to know that we had to walk miles around the back of the mountain to get there when it looked so close.
We took the Cable Mountain trail to the right and continued on our way. We seemed to be heading in the opposite direction of Cable Mountain for miles, but it was a necessary evil to get back up and around the canyons near Cable Mountain.
There is a short portion of the trail that follows rock cairns which was the first time that Matthew had to locate the cairns to follow a trail. By this time, my hips were already getting sore. I obviously don't have the same quick recovery time I used to have!
We finally came to the turn off to Cable and Deer Trap mountains. Stave Spring is just about 150-200 yards past the turn off and as we were getting a little low on water, we decided to head up there and check it out and also fill up a couple water bottles. The cold water was flowing steadily out of the pipe that had been stuck in the ground to help with the access. We filled up our bottles and made our way back down to the junction.
After about a mile and some time exploring a small waterfall along the way, we came to the spot where the Cable Mountain and Deer Trap Mountain trails split. Matthew wanted to do Cable Mountain for sure, so we headed that way first. After another 2 miles we arrived at the newly remodeled cable works at 2:44. Some time between this summer and last, a restoration project had been done on the cable works which was obvious from the new lighter colored beams in place. Also, the cables were removed from the structure.
We ate some snacks and enjoyed the awesome drops - about 2000 feet straight down - before leaving about 3:00. As we were leaving I was trying to figure out how I could convince Matthew that we should head back instead of trying to tackle Deer Trap Mountain too, but he was so excited to try it. So when we came back to the cable/deer trap junction, after asking him what he wanted to do, he predictably wanted to do Deer Trap Mountain.
The Deer Trap Mountain Trail is much more overgrown and less used then the Cable Mountain Trail. I was 
wishing I had worn pants as my legs were getting whipped by the tall grass overlying the trail. We had to go up and over 2 small draws and my legs felt every step. Finally at 4:45 after about 3 miles, we came to the edge of Deer Trap which gave us a great view of Zion Lodge below and to the north. We were both shocked to see that we had come so far south, especially considering the fact that the Weeping Rock trail head is two stops past the Zions Lodge stop!
wishing I had worn pants as my legs were getting whipped by the tall grass overlying the trail. We had to go up and over 2 small draws and my legs felt every step. Finally at 4:45 after about 3 miles, we came to the edge of Deer Trap which gave us a great view of Zion Lodge below and to the north. We were both shocked to see that we had come so far south, especially considering the fact that the Weeping Rock trail head is two stops past the Zions Lodge stop!
We snapped some pictures but knew we needed to hurry back so we didn't run out of daylight. So we left at 4:52 to make our way back. Thunder started cracking around us in the distance and it started to drizzle here and there which felt good. As the thunder got closer, we reviewed lightning safety procedures and quickened our pace.
My legs were definitely not so politely reminding me that I had just hiked Mt Whitney a week ago and I knew that Matthew's had to be screaming at him too. But we pressed on making really good time.
We got back to the Weeping Rock shuttle stop just before the shuttle arrived at 7:47 and made it back home just before 9:00 after 21.5 miles and a full 12 hour day!
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