Fat Man’s Misery (East Fork)

Jun 3, 2017 — Fat Man's Misery is located just outside Zion National Park, and therefore doesn't require a permit. It's more remote and takes more work that most of the Zion canyons, but it's a great trip. I also completed the West Fork of Fat Man's Misery, a slightly shorter but more popular route than the one described here. However, both canyons are great and both see the most interesting stuff so you can't go wrong either way, really.

Head through the canyon to the west of Checkerboard Mesa to a notch at the top of a sandy slope, and descend into the Zion backcountry ahead. Follow cairns on a decently well-traveled social trail to the head of the West Fork of Fat Man's Misery. The trail regularly crosses slickrock, so you may need to keep your eyes peeled for cairns. Don't descend into the west Fork, but instead locate a bowl and ascend another slickrock hump, only to descend on the other side into the East Fork of Fat Man's Misery. There's a bunch of obstacles and a few rappels, and ithe canyon is super fun overall. One of the bolts was loose when we did the canyon, so check your anchors in case it hasn't been replaced.

Once you reach the beautiful grotto before entering The Barracks (a section in Parunuweap Canyon), the rappeling is over and you can follow the East Fork of the Virgin River west for a short time through the incredible lesser-known Barracks, similar to the Narrows. Look for the Class 3 scramble to escape The Barracks on the right, marked poorly and easy to miss since it's tempting to walk forever down The Barracks.

Above the Barracks, we were at the southern reaches of a wide ridge, which would eventually lead to the slickrock wonderland that we left to drop into the canyon earlier. We followed a good social trail supported by cairns that lead along some slickrock for a bit, then the trail continues traversing on sandy terrain. Paralleling Fat Man's Misery, the trail is in great shape for a time, but it fades away a bit and gets tricky to follow. Eventually after traversing pretty far away from the wide ridge, the faint trail finally ascends to the left and up to the wide ridge. It's likely we could have continued directly north along this wide ridge straight from the Barracks rather than do the bench traverse, but the more prominent social trail leading out of the Barracks  tooks us this way. Once on the ridge, we managed to stick to a slightly better social trail as it continues north and merges with the aproach route from earlier in the day.