No room for the angels... :)

Today we headed to Zion National Park. I wanted to hike the Angel's Landing Trail, 2.5 miles up 1,490 feet to a lookout over Zion canyon. This was the most strenuous hike of our trip, and was also surprisingly crowded for its difficulty. The first two miles were basically sidewalk with a steep grade, including "Walter's Wiggles," a set of 21 switchbacks in the side of a cliff. Only about a quarter mile in I got to see some of the local wildlife...

HUGE tarantula on the Angel's Landing trail...

A view from early on the trail.

 

Walter's Wiggles, the last part of the "sidewalk" portion of the trail.

Almost to Scout's landing.

At the top of Walter's Wiggles was Scout's Landing. This nice, wide, resting place had lovely views for those who were too scared/tired to continue on the last half mile of the trail, which was completely different terrain than the sidewalk of the rest of the trail...

View from Scout's Landing.

 

Me at Scout's Landing.

After Scout's Landing, the trail became significantly different. :) From a simple sidewalk, it turned into scrambling up a ridge line holding on to a chain. At times, the ridge was only about 5 feet wide, and this was the point where the trek felt VERY crowded. Gavin and I got stuck behind a group of 7 people, the first of whom was proceeding VERY slowly, and she build up a huge crowd behind her. Since there was only room for single file, there was no way to pass her. People coming down from the trail had to alternate with we who were going up. Finally, the woman's son told her to step aside and let all the people pass, so Gavin and I ended up in front of the group, which was fine since our pace was pretty fast and nobody wanted to overtake us. :)

The final ascent begins!

 

No chain here - that little ledge of rock I am standing on and the little patch of sand drop off into a cliff. :)

 

See that ridge line behind us? We're going up that. :)

 

Another lovely view - the last place to stop before the final part of the ascent.

Finally, we arrived at the stop and were rewarded with incredible 360 degree views of the canyon. There were a ton of other people resting at the top (hence, "no room for the angels" on Angel's Landing, as there are too many tourists :) ), so at least we had someone to take a picture of us there.

Angel's Landing.

 

Zion Canyon from Angel's Landing.

 

The other side of Zion Canyon.

The trip back down the canyon was much easier - there were fewer people to worry about. I even got to take a little video, though Gavin got mad at me and told me to stop; he thought I was going to fall while messing around with the camera. :)

 

After the hike, we drove our sweaty, smelly selves toward Moab, the landing point for both Arches and Canyonland national parks. On the way, we stopped for a tasty Mexican dinner at a restaurant right off the interstate in Selina. The area of the interstate between Selina and Green River is the most empty piece of interstate in the US - no gas, no restaurants, no other towns, etc. We stopped at the only rest stop on that stretch, which was just an outhouse with no light; I had to use my cell phone to light it on the inside! We arrived in Moab pretty late, barely making it before the front office of the Bowen Motel closed! We took luxurious showers, washing off the grime of Angel's Landing, and we were practically asleep before our heads hit the pillows!

 

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