Lady Mountain

Lady Mountain rises above the floor of Zion Canyon as one of the park's original summit routes — and one of its most infamous. Built in 1924, the trail once used roughly 2,000 feet of cable, more than 1,400 carved steps, and at least two ladders to gain about 2,650 feet of elevation over under two miles.

What changed

• The National Park Service stopped maintaining the route in the late 1960s after years of rescues on its exposed sections.
• Signage and hardware were later removed, leaving the original cable-and-step construction gone.
• The line is still legal to climb, but it now functions as an unmarked, exposed scramble that calls for real route-finding and comfort with heights, not a maintained trail.

Rangers still respond to falls here; treat Lady Mountain as a serious off-trail objective, not a casual hike, and go prepared or skip it.