Zion

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In March of 2002 Kate and I were in Zion National Park for a couple of nights. We had earlier been to Death Valley and then at a conference in Las Vegas -- where we flew from. It was nice to catch a bit of sun and blue sky in the American Southwest and escape our dreary winter.

We had visited briefly the year before in 2001 when we did a grand tour of National Parks around the Grand Canyon and were so impressed we wanted to come back and explore more.

Zion is a deep narrow canyon about 3 hours to the north east of Las Vegas in Utah. As it's off season we were able to book a cabin in the park and drive our car in. In the busy seasons it's hard to get a room in the park and cars aren't allowed -- you're shuttled around by bus.

The cabin was very nice -- built of stone and logs with a fireplace to enjoy. There's not much going on after sunset which comes pretty early as you're in a canyon. We played scrabble one night and enjoyed ourselves. As this was a very short stay -- drive up from Las Vegas, overnight in our park, a full day in the park, overnight in the park and then back to Las Vegas for our flight home -- we made the most of our one full day in the park.

We arose early to make the most of the day. We had planned on doing some hikes up the rock face for views of the valley. But there had been a snow fall overnight and the trails were slippery. So, instead we went to the visitors center, near the entrance to the park, and hiked around there. As the sun came up and shone into the valley the snow started to melt and trails became more tractable.

Nearby is a trail to a high viewpoint at a place called the Angel's Landing. If you can imagine the looping path that a river makes as it meanders to form this canyon think of a very narrow loop that forms what looks like a very narrow tear drop. It's sometimes described as a vertical fin -- it's just that narrow. That's Angel's Landing.  What makes it especially interesting is the site you hike to is very narrow and very high up. It's a vertical drop of 1,488' from the top down to the valley floor. The steep path up is carved out of the side of the canyon wall and loops back and forth. Walter's Wiggles is a narrow switchback built of rock and stone on the trail -- very similar to some of the trails in Grand Canyon

However, we really weren't prepared for Angel's Landing.

Near the top (actually far from the trail end), at the narrow part of the tear drop, the trail takes one out over a narrow tilted area where there's a chain that you can hang onto! Kate is bravely leading the way and I'm scared shitless holding onto this chain and crawling along on my hands and knees. It seems to me that if one were to slip you'd soon be sliding over the edge and falling 1,000' or so to your certain death. A fast way down but not my idea of fun. I suggest that maybe we should turn around and not go to the end of the trail. Fortunately Kate agrees with me (takes pity on me) and we turn around.

As we are shimmying off this narrow (perhaps 40-50' wide) tilted rock area we encounter some young people who are on their return trip. They've been to the very end and on their way back. They're young, perhaps in their 20's, and walking along (recall we're crawling and holding onto the chain for dear life) smoking cigarettes, hands in their pockets and chatting away as if they were walking down main street in their home town. They were sympathetic to our plight and waited patiently as we crawled back to the relative safety of wider ground. The picture above shows Kate in the relative safety of "wider ground". I had a terrifying sense of vertigo that I could not manage just knowing that over the edge it's a straight drop ... down, ... down, ... down, ... and splat!

If you ever read about the trail we didn't make it as far as the "Scout Lookout" which is known as the turn around spot for the faint of heart. It's just that scary.

I have since discovered that the path, after we had abandoned it, gets incredibly narrow. Barely wide enough for people to pass one another! How can they have such places and even build trails to them? I've recently discovered on line:

• Dave Nally, author of Deaths and Rescues in Zion National Park, states “Angels Landing is the deadliest spot in Zion. There have been at least 15 deaths there during the last century.” (2019)
• In response to concerns about crowding and congestion on the trail, on and after April 1, 2022, everyone who hikes Angels Landing needs to have a permit. 

In later years we did return to Zion and were able to walk a rock face on the far side of the valley. But on this trip, we weren't brave (or foolish) enough to venture further. At this stage, I don't think I ever will.

In closing, there are a lot of trails worth exploring in Zion. Many are easy trails, some are frightening. For more information on Angel's Landing see Joe's Guide to Zion where there are some stunning photos of how narrow it can get.

Ps. these notes and the photo album were prepared during the COVID-19 lockdown in January of 2021. Photos are scanned from Fujichrome slides taken at the time with a Canon A2.