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My cousin told me to skip the switchbacks on the Paria River trail and take the direct canyon route instead
He said it would save us 3 miles and an hour of hiking in the August heat. We tried it and ended up cliffed out twice, had to backtrack through loose scree, and nearly ran out of water before we even hit the halfway point. Now I'm questioning if he actually knew that shortcut or just guessed. On the other hand, maybe we just picked the wrong spot to drop down and it works fine for folks who know the terrain. Has anyone else taken that direct line off the Paria and actually made it work without trouble?
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willow1149d ago
Honestly I used to be one of those "shortcut or die" people but after getting cliffed out on the Paria myself I'm totally with you now.
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christopher_wells49d ago
Yeah I've seen that line fail more times than it works. @willow114 nailed it, getting cliffed out on the Paria is practically a rite of passage for anyone who tries those shortcuts. The problem is that canyon drops in weird tiers so what looks like a simple descent from above ends up being a dead end. You probably needed to stay further east another quarter mile before dropping, but without local knowledge it's a total crapshoot.
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