Zion National Part II

The most popular hike in Zion is the one called Angels Landing…which for obvious reasons I will now refer to as Angel’s Landing, note the subtle placement of the apostrophe.  This hike only carries you 1500 feet up to an over look that gives you a great site of the park and the surrounding area, while not the highest point in the park, it still has some amazing views.  The total roundtrip is a mere 4 miles, and while it was only half the distance of the previous days hike, my ankles, calves, thighs, and pretty much everything else below my waist were already sore and raw from the marathon climb the day before.

Now this climb I had staked out the first day I was in the park and I realized that the time to do this would either have to be in the early morning or late afternoon, with the setting sun.  Seeing how this hike is notorious, and again not making this up, for people falling to their DEATHS, I figured maybe this was not the hike that I wanted to do with no sunlight, so a morning climb it was.

I woke up pretty early on this day and went down to the visitor’s center to wait for the shuttle that tours you around the rest of the canyon.  While I was waiting at the stop, I thought to myself that there was a lot of geology in this park that I really was not aware of.  I figured that some other time, when I came back, I would need to get one of those ranger folk to explain what half of the formations in the park were.  Well, not that at this point much surprises me, however, on my shuttle heading up to do the exact same hike of Angel’s Landing was a lovely young woman by the name of Kellyn, who is a geology major!!

Now Kellyn is herself on a solo tour of the US and part of this trip for her was to try new things, get over fears, and in general push her limits.  Her reasons for hiking Angel’s Landing was to get over her fear of cliffs.  When I heard this I asked her if she had actually seen just how intense the climb was and she said that as long as someone had done it before, she should be able to get over herself.

The first 1.5 miles of the hike were aggressive but not that bad, just a really inclined path all along the canyon wall.  This then brings you to the watch tower which is a nice overview of what is to come.  In the previous picture it is at the end of the ridge spine, where the orange color is blended with the white.  Now the last half mile is almost completely vertical.  You are pulling yourself up the last portion with these chains that have been posted along the “path”.

This puts it all into perspective:

Needless to say, Kellyn has no more fears of cliffs!

~ by coachcrew on August 2, 2008.