Hepworth and Roof Peaks Trail

The trail up to Hepworth and Roof Peaks is a fantastic desert adventure for experienced hikers who are comfortable with route-finding and scrambling. This trail is not marked, so using a GPS and downloaded map can be a huge help with safe route-finding. Although this trail is not long, the terrain is technical, so give yourself plenty of time to complete this hike and bring lots of water and a headlamp just in case; you don’t want to be downclimbing in the dark. The Hepworth and Roof Peaks trail gets little traffic compared to the rest of the routes in Zion, so you might just be lucky enough to have the trail and the views all to yourself!

From the parking lot, find the path just next to the outhouse that heads down into Pine Creek. On the left hand side of the Gifford Canyon Dryfall, there is an unmaintained trail that leads up vegetated slickrock. Scramble your way up this trail until you are on even ground. Make your way around the shelf ahead to the mouth of Gifford Canyon. Follow the canyon wash for about 0.7mi until you see a large pine tree standing in the middle of the wash dividing it in two; follow the path on the right. You are gradually going to make your way south west following a cliff face on your right-hand side for about 0.5mi to a plateau. Follow the plateau south to a large east/west drainage. From this drainage, you can scramble up to Hepworth Peak on the north side and Roof Peak on the south side.

After ascending both peaks, follow the large drainage eastward until it meets up with a north/south drainage. This north/south drainage is Gifford wash—where you began. Follow the wash out north and it will lead you back to the parking lot!