Jenny Peak & Jenny's Nipples Zion Peakbagging

  • Updated: November 23, 2018
  • Post By: Matthew Hengst

November 23rd, 2018
Jenny Peak (6,310')
Jenny's Nipples (6,240')
3.9 miles, 1,500'

Jenny Peak is an obscure bump in an area of Zion National Park that doesn't see near the amount of traffic as the main canyon. The peak itself is lower than a lot of its neighbors but it makes for that with the enjoyable class 3 -ish scramble and a summit view that engulfs you in a spectacularly beautiful and underappreciated area of the park.

It's also apparently located in a closure based on what I found out after we did the peak. We didn't see a single sign anywhere along the route but YMMV.

This was a part of this year's Thanksgiving trip aka the 2018 Turktacular!  This year I was out in Zion Utah climbing a series of smaller peaks. For the other days see the tag Turktacular 2018 and for what I've gotten up to other years see the tag Turktacular.


We woke up pre dawn to find everything frozen and ate a quick breakfast before setting out all the way back to Springdale for some extra firewood and a few food items we'd need for the next few days. That meant driving all the way through the park and then back which was annoying but did allow us to scout out the parking options fairly well.

The trailhead for Jenny east of the main tunnel and wast of the smaller tunnel. Be aware that parking east of the Zion tunnel can be a real challenge since it's very limited parking but a lot of people end up trying to do the Canyon Overlook Trail.

It's best to ignore the two small lots right by the eastern exit of the tunnel since those are usually packed.


The best parking spot we found was a small turnout that could fit 2 or 3 well parked vehicles and had a use trail leading off to the south.



There was a use trail leading down into the canyon and then footprints going off in most every direction.



We started our climb out of the canyon here following a track I'd found online. We aimed for the ridge and just went up whatever looked doable.


There were a few tricky spots along the way but there was always something we could make work. Kristen was wearing 5.10 Guide Tennies and ended up having a lot more trouble with the sandstone than I did in my trusty Sportiva Boulder X's.



Once on the ridge you get an even better view and are mostly on straight sandstone.


Before long we could make out Jenny Peak itself which had been described rather accurately as looking a lot more like a boob than the nearby neighbor Nippletop.  And they do have a point.


We just went straight up the ridge picking our way along features as necessary.

The views from the summit were spectacular and sadly I really didn't do justice to them with my pictures.  Needless to say I'd strongly recommend seeing it yourself.




And of course there's Jenny's Nipples so named by CP's guidebook and several sites online. They are two 2nd / 3rd class protrusions south of the main summit that we probably wouldn't have visited were it not for the informal name.

But someone did name them so of course we scrambled over.


There was a bit more light 3rd class with the lighter colored rock being particularly bad about just crumbling to dust underneath our feet.


The summits are very near to each other and we didn't find a register or anything else of note.


We briefly debated trying for Little Jenny Peak (foreground peak to the right of the image above) which was further south near Parunuweap Canyon but with only four or so more hours of daylight we decided we'd rather head back to the car and climb Nippletop.


We saw a large group that included non adults pop out of the canyon to the east and decided we'd try a loop vs retrace our steps.


Getting down had a few hairy spots especially for Kristen who would spend most of the weekend struggling with her guide tennies but there's always a way.



The one point where we had to get fancy was right before we rejoined the track from this morning. I downclimbed to the last move or too which I was almost certain I could do...except if I'd taken a fall I would have landed in a large puddle half filled with ice. And Kristen watching from above looked less than excited about either of those things.


And we did have a rope with us just in case so we decided to pull it out and do a quick dulfersitz.


And from there it was an easy stroll down the canyon to our car and we were off to the next peak for the day Nippletop!

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