Zion National Park
Summary of post, because this is a long one with a lot of pictures: Zion was amazing. We walked along the River before heading to the Grotto trailhead to do the Angel's landing hike, which we got a lottery permit for! The final .8 miles of the hike is chained, with steep drop-offs on both sides, so they are doing a permit system to limit the amount of foot traffic, to make things a bit safer! That last part was amazing but we both agree that the view isn't thattttt much better than Scouts Lookout (the point right before the chained section starts). For us, it was more of the experience of doing that part that we really enjoyed because it challenged us and pushed our limits with heights / falling!
Now, onto the post..
We headed to Zion early in the morning knowing we wanted to walk along the River (that leads to the narrows) before doing Angel's landing.
We did the Zion Narrows Riverside Walk. There is a paved path all the way down to where the actual wading in the water part of the Narrows trails start, which we did on the way there but on our way back out to the shuttle point, we walked down by the water and the fall colors were gorgeous against the rocks. The water was not too terribly cold!
Once we get into the park, you have to take a shuttle to the main trails! We had the BEST shuttle driver named Russ. On our shuttle going to the Grotto (where we start for Angel's landing), Russ gave us all the details on the park and things to look at including all the mating deer, rock climbers, and all the fall colors. We were the only ones on the shuttle and we went in the caboose so we could have the entire front window to watch the park pass us by.
You need a permit to hike the chained part of Angel's landing (it is the last .8 miles of the 4.5 mile round trip hike). We applied for the permit on Friday night (early Saturday morning) and found out on Saturday afternoon we were approved for the permit!
Ryan openly admits he isn't a fan of heights (and I just have a fear of falling from high places, totally different) so we weren't sure if we were going to do the Angel's Landing part of the hike (the chained part that we needed a permit for) but we figured we would decide when we got to that point!
Here is a trail map to help orient my descriptions below:
The first part of the hike was very sunny! I, in no surprise, took off 2 layers within 10 minutes of starting.
After these switchbacks, you go through Refrigerator Canyon, which is shaded. It also was a quiet area because of the Mexican Spotted Owls that live in the area and are an endangered species.
Now begins the series of photos from the rest of the hike (through Angel's landing and back down)!
On our way down, this huge bird started flying straight toward us (mostly straight toward Ryan). Everyone on the path told him to jsut stay still because if he went forward, you don't want the condor to lunge at you and then fall back over the steep edge. We admit watching this that the condor doesn't look that close but it really was - we also heard people talking about it on our way back down the hike! I keep saying that Ryan was attacked by a bird but thankfully that isn't true (but would've made for a great story).
Finally off of the chained part, below are a few more pictures of the trail!
Don't watch if you don't like very unsteady camera work- could make you feel sick!!! BUT Below is the compilation of the time lapse clips I took on the hike. We really didn't feel unsafe at any point and if you don't mind heights, we would recommend but you really aren't missing out on any views by not doing it! It was more of the experience itself that was worth it!
One of our absolute favorite parts of this hike was the camaraderie you saw amongst everyone on the trail! There was a lot of communication required since it is a single file path. Everyone was so kind and encouraging! People were also very considerate when helping others, or moving to the side (which is dangerous to do) if someone decided they couldn't handle the heights and needed to turn around!
oh, we also popped into Court of the Patriarchs for the .05 mile 'hike'.
after this hike, we shuttled back to the car and drove to the popular Canyon Overlook hike to watch the sunset but parking was very limited and very full. I was driving and decided we would do a little poking around at pull-off area. WE LOVED IT. You basically got to climb anywhere you wanted. There were only 4 other people there but they left soon after we got there because they saw mountain lion (or cougar or some large cat's) paw prints all around -- but that didn't stop Ryan and I because we love to live on the edge of danger (no, really, it didn't stop us- we didn't feel too unsafe but we do agree those definitely weren't a domesticated animal's paw prints).
AND FINALLY - THE MOON ON THE WAY TO KANAB - OUR HOME OF THE WEEK!
