Road Trip Day 7: Zion National Park--Angel's Landing

The wind wasn’t near as bad last night, so we made it up at our designated time, caught the 7am shuttle, and headed up to the Grotto stop on the Canyon Highway. From this stop, we could access the west rim trail, which leads to Angel’s Landing, a 5.4-mile round-trip hike that is considered strenuous. After doing hidden canyon a couple of days before, I knew that strenuous meant uphill, so I was a little nervous, but on we went!                                     

A view of the longer switchbacks from above.

View from the first hill on the spine
 hike to Angel's Landing.

The first mile or so are long switch-backs that head up the side of the canyon wall. There are barriers, and the trail is wide, so if you’re afraid of heights it wasn’t bad. The views were awesome though and because we started so early in the morning, we were hiking in shade most of the way. After this grueling section, during which we managed to overtake many parties starting ahead of us(to my surprise…), you get some “flat” walking time, with just gentle up’s and downs, that leads back in between the canyon walls. After about a .5 mile stretch, you come across another set of switch-backs, which are short and steep. You ascend about 400 feet in a half-mile. This part was brutal, but because the switch-backs were so short, we powered through and made it to the top, walked about 200 yards, and learned that we were already at Scout’s Landing. This is often a turn-around point for people on this hike because the next 0.7 miles of this hike is sketchy at best, scrambling/rock climbing, with the assistance of chains in some areas. We also had to gain another 300 feet or so of elevation during this climb, so it definitely wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Southern View from Angel's Landing

Passing by some who let their families go ahead, Jen and I powered on, excited to get our amazing view at the top. We started on the first section (which we originally thought was part of the end…), and made our way up the sandstone with fair ease. Once on top, we realized that there were no people because we still had a long ways to go! It was definitely a daunting task, and although the pictures I post will attempt to show you what this looks like, unless you’re there and can see it in person, nothing will truly do this hike justice.

Northern View from Angel's Landing

We continued on, making good time and reaching the top with little incident. There were definitely some steep cliffs and this was not a hike for children, people without proper footwear, or for those who are afraid of heights. Many people had gone apart way up and turned around on the sheer ridges. I will say that the chains helped…a lot…but this is the type of climbing that I like. I’m better at the scrambling than the constant uphill cardio!

Western View from Angel's Landing

The spine of the monolith leading to Angel's
Landing...You have to climb this.

The view at the top was amazing, as promised. A full 360-degree view of Zion National Park. You couldn’t ask for better, really…we also met some really cool people up top from Seattle, Albuquerque, and Massachusetts…which we bonded with well enough to make a 5-person train to head back down. This was important because you can’t really pass people on this trail without having someone pull over for you to go around. When descending with a group, you can plan ahead, yell to people coming up, and determine the best way to maneuver down the side of the cliff.

Sheer drop-off's leading to Angel's Landing

At the end, Jen and I made the round-trip in just under 3 hours, with a 15-20 minute snack break at the top. It was getting warm and more tourists were heading up the hill, so it was a good time to get the hell outta dodge!

Me on the hike down...overlooking the valley

We took the half-mile trail back to Zion Lodge and then headed up the 1.2 mile r/t trail to the Lower Emerald Pools. We decided that this was more for exercise than anything…it wasn’t anything spectacular, or a must-see. I think for those who don’t have the capacity for the big hikes or have small children with them, this was a great “easy” hike to take. For us, it was more exercise…and a time spender.

Lower Emerald Pools

We then headed back to the campground, cleaned up, and took a drive back through the park to take pictures that we didn’t take on our way in. It was a nice, relaxing ride, and a good way to spend the afternoon. We then headed into Springdale (it was the 4^th of July, so we needed beer and a place to celebrate). What we learned is that in Utah, you have to have a special license (as an establishment) to serve beer without food. We weren’t hungry, so we made the most of the time, shopped a little, found beer at a coffee shop, and hung out until we were hungry enough to eat. We had a great dinner at Switchback Jack’s (again), where we had huge beers…and then went back to the campground. We hung out for a while and turned in at a reasonable time. Maybe a lame fourth of July, but we drank what we could and focused on the fact that we had a great hike that morning as our celebration!

Road Trip Day 6: Zion National Park--The Narrows

We had planned on hiking Angel’s Landing, but because the wind was so insane, we decided to change things up and hit the Narrows today instead. The Narrows is a hike along the Virgin River that goes deep into the narrow slot canyons. If you have a permit, you can hike the entire 16 miles route down from Chaimberlan Ranch, but since we just wanted a day hike that we could control, we went the tourist route.

We took the shuttle up to the last stop, hiked one mile to the opening in the river. We then hiked about 3.5 miles up the river. At some points we had to swim through the river because the water was so deep. It was 5 miles to Big Springs, which was as far as day hikers were allowed, but we knew that we had to make our way back and there was another short canyon hike that we wanted to do.  So we had a snack and dried off a bit in the sun, and headed back downstream. When we got to the fork in the river, we headed back about half a mile to Veil Falls. There was a series of small waterfalls with pools below each one. Once you get back to the falls, you have to do some scrambling to get to each level. We went up a few, took some pictures, and then headed the half mile back out to the main river.

By this time, there were a ton of people in the canyon which made our exit rather difficult at times. We made our way back, finishing our entire 10 mile trip in just under 6 hours. It was a great hike that I would highly recommend to anyone. Just be prepared with the proper footwear, a dry bag for your cameras and gear that you don’t want to get wet, and know that although the distance doesn’t seem bad, walking through the river for 6 hours and having to make your way across rocks the entire time, will wear you out. We are definitely both a bit sore now!

Once we got back, we changed and headed back into town to find something for dinner and return our walking sticks and Jen’s water shoes. We grabbed some sandwiches at a bar and grille, grabbed some more ice, and headed back.

The best thing about our campground, besides the view, is that the Virgin River runs alongside it and you can wade down into the water to relax. Both nights we have sat down there with our feet in the river, just enjoying the scenery and letting our sore feet a nice soak.  We then went back to have some wine, wind down with our books, and prepare for bed. We are planning another strenuous hike for tomorrow to round out our visit…fingers crossed all goes well!

Road Trip Day 5: Zion National Park

Zion National Park

We woke up really early today, knowing that we might lose an hour because of time zones and headed out to Zion National Park near Springdale, Utah. We had to drive around the canyon via state highways, which was pretty. Arizona has some cool landscapes when you drive away from the cities, a drive that I would encourage people to take up route 89. We entered on the East side of Zion and drove the 12 miles to the south gate. This is a park that I have wanted to visit for years and the scenery did not disappoint. We made our first stop at the campground to grab a site. There were plenty available at this time of the morning, so we found one that we liked, got settled and then headed out to do some hiking.

Zion N. P.

Zion N.P.

Zion doesn’t allow anyone to drive their car to the trailheads, so that definitely eases congestion. They had shuttles running often from many points along the main access road in the park. We went to the visitors center and grabbed a shuttle up to Weeping Rock. It was a short (1 mile round trip hike), up a fairly gentle slope to an inlet in the canyon wall where water drips down slowly and constantly. We got some pictures and headed back down the trail. We then decided to head up to Hidden Canyon, which was a 2 mile round trip hike, but considered strenuous because it was straight uphill the entire way. When you make it near the top, you are walking around the canyon wall at a high altitude, and there are chains attached to the wall for safety. Not a good hike for people afraid of heights. This hike definitely liver up to the “strenuous” reputation. With the temperature over 100 degrees and the constant uphill climb, it definitely gave us a workout and some great views of the park. We headed down and took the shuttle back to the visitors center, and then headed back to the campground to clean up.

Zion N.P.

For dinner, we headed into Springdale, just outside the park and about 5 minutes from our campsite, and went to Zion Pizza and Noodles. We shared a pizza and had some beer. By that time we were pretty worn out, so we grabbed a couple beers and a new bag of ice, and went back to relax.

Hidden Canton Hike at Zion N. P.

Another early night, turned into some good sleep for a couple for hours before the crazy wind started. There wasn’t a storm, but the wind was wicked for the rest of the night. Because it continued into the morning, we altered our plans for hiking. No big deal!