Zion National Park — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

It was fascinating to us to see that southern Utah (as “small” as it is) has 5 National Parks, and they are quite distinct from one another in topography.

We drove in from the east on Utah State Hwy 9, and were blown away by the colors in the sandstone and the afternoon light.

The hills and formations were massive.

The pink striations were widespread and gorgeous.

We stayed in the little town of Springdale (pop. 692) that sits just outside of the park. This was our view from the deck at our B&B:

I just love the “Golden Hour” -

The weather really changed from when we were deep in the Grand Canyon. Sunrise here wasn’t until after 0700, and it was almost pitch black until right before the sun cleared the hills. Temperatures had plummeted, and were below 30 in the morning! Needless to say, we didn’t walk to the shuttle in town to try to get sunrise pictures.

This park is centered around Zion Canyon, and as such, there’s little area to allow parking. So, until Nov. 1, there’s no entrance into the park other than by shuttle buses. This was so different than all the other parks we’d been exploring. So, the first day there, we rode the buses into the canyon and explored the various stops and took short hikes. At the far end of the canyon was the Riverside Walk trail.

This was so much more lush and green (albeit with fall colors showing up) than the area just outside the park that is desert scrub.

Along the path, we could easily see where the water seeped through:

At the end of this trail, you could continue on into The Narrows…

…but I didn’t feel like renting a drysuit, complete with boots, to wade through the river as far back as you’d want to go.

So, we headed back down the canyon -

…and were treated to an adolescent California Condor across the canyon:

(you can blow up the picture, but i apologize for the blurriness - this was shot on the fly, at the farthest zoom I could)

I loved the contrasting colors -

those are full size pine trees, for scale

The second day started at 20 F, but I was determined to hike Angel’s Landing. This has been variously described as “the scariest hike in America” to “one of the most dangerous hikes in the world”. Steve was still coddling his ankle, so he justifiably didn’t want to attempt it. The first 2 miles is paved, but it is relentlessly up -

The switchbacks of Walter’s Wiggles continue the upward climb, but steeper:

As noted before, the people in both of the preceding pictures give scale.

From Scout’s Landing, at the 2 mile mark up the trail, the view was pretty awesome -

see the shuttle bus waaayyyy down there?

I loved the mix of vertical and horizontal lines of color and rock scouring -

The last 1/2 mile used chains:

Yes, that’s where I hiked:

It was both scary and exhilarating. As long as I told myself to concentrate on the area right in front of me, and not look down while I was walking, I did fine, and felt like I was walking on fairly flat ground (ignoring the thousands of feet drop on either side).

At this point, I thought, “I made it"!”…

…then I looked around the corner -

Finally!

At 1500 ft above the canyon, the view is pretty mind blowing.

This gave me such an amazing sense of personal accomplishment. I wanted to jump up and down and scream, but I was too nervous.

On the way down, I could enjoy the views of the canyon that I had trudged by earlier -

Where I came from:

enlarge it and see the teeny-tiny people

I found a video on YouTube that shows what it’s like to hike to Angel’s Landing (definitely not for the faint of heart) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy6K0KoMrco , for those who might be interested.

On our way out of the park the next morning, we hiked to Inspiration Point, for some more amazing views: