Toilets at the top

by Anton Zuiker on April 4, 2026

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

Late in the day on Wednesday Oliver and I met up above Walter’s Wiggles at the top of the West Rim Trail in Zion National Park. We were in Utah for a spring break adventure with Erin, Anna, the Claffey family (Erin’s sister, Mary), and Tom and Katherine (Erin’s other sister) from Boise. Our group had won a morning permit to crawl out to (death defying) Angel’s Landing, but the overnight rains kept us away (great excuse to skip the danger) until late afternoon. After hiking other parts of the park (muddy Lee Pass Trail in the Kolog Canyons section and then Watchman Trail in the main park), most of us took up the challenge to hustle up to Scout Point, just before Angel’s Landing, and then down again in time for the last shuttle down to the visitor center.

While I waited for Erin to arrive at the trailhead, Oliver and his cousins started up the steep trail. Eventually, Erin urged me to go ahead, so I hiked fast, barely stopping to catch my breath and not even enjoying the cool beauty of Refrigerator Canyon. I met Oliver at Scout Lookout, snapped some photos, and used the toilet. Yes, there is a set of pit latrines up at the top of the trail.

“Toilets at the top!” I said.

“That’s funny,” said Oliver.

“It could be the title of a blog post,” I replied.

Down the trail we went, pausing every few minutes to watch the growing shadows on the canyon walls. So late in the day meant the crowds were gone and we were basically alone on the trail. We didn’t make it to the iconic Angel’s Landing but we did get to enjoy the park in a memorable way.

Other hikes we did: Weeping Rock, Riverside Walk (along with hundreds of families in their waders on their way into the Narrows), and Kayenta Trail to Upper Emerald Pools. We took hundreds of photos along the way, and I stopped even more to just look up and marvel at the expanse and scale of the rock cliffs.

A birthday

Thursday was my birthday, so in true Zuiker fashion we started the day at River Rock Roasting Co. for breakfast and giant cinnamon rolls. We sat outside on the veranda that overlooks the Virgin River, which comes out of Zion Canyon. (Another family walked by, one girl wearing a Carolina shirt, so we chatted with them to find out they, too, were from Chapel Hill.) Around the table, we discussed our itinerary, which needed to end in Las Vegas for our final night. Since it was my birthday, I got to decide, and since there were Mojave Desert tortoises to be seen, I opted for Utah’s Snow Canyon State Park. This park is just outside of St. George, and near the BLM’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, and I was surprised by how much there was to do. Alas, we did not see a tortoise, but we hiked for more than three hours amid the beauty.

Glamping

Erin had made most the trip’s arrangements months before, and when she suggested we sleep in the heated tents of Under Canvas, I gave an enthusiastic yes. This was a fun place, set on a beautiful hill at the very edge of Zion National Park, with an on-site kitchen and family activities and plenty of dry firewood for the stove inside the tent (and a heated shower, a sink, a toilet). We’d been promised stellar views of the Milky Way but rain clouds and then a full moon kept the heavens away. Still, a very enjoyable way to visit the area.

Las Vegas

We flew in and out of Vegas, stayed two nights at the Bellagio and then a final night at the Palazzo at the Venetian. The lights and noise and crowds of the strip were exciting, at first, but quickly unpalatable (having to walk through the smoky casino to get in and out of the hotel added to the discomfort). The highlight was pizza, gelato, and espresso at Eataly. From Vegas we took a day trip to the Hoover Dam and nearby Boulder City.

The Wayfinder

On the flight home, I read for hours, still only half through The Wayfinder, the 700-page novel by Adam Johnson.

On page 365, I read this dialogue, in which the young Kōrero answers that she had been lost when sailing on her own.

“When I focused on where I was supposed to go and how I should get there, I felt pretty lost. When I forgot all that and just sailed, I seemed to go in the right direction.”

There were moments on the trail, my phone away and the family spread before and behind, when I felt perfectly in the moment, the stillness of the desert or the strength of the canyon or the vastness of the universe taking me just where I needed to be going.

I want to go back, to Zion and St. George and everything else there is to explore in Southwest Utah.

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