Today we spent our second day in Zion Park and off the bikes. The weather was cool but dry which was a great improvement over yesterday’s continuous rain.
We had a nice breakfast…well, Michele and Tom had a nice breakfast, Rob just had a glass of orange juice after enjoying a full rack of ribs at dinner the night before. After breakfast, we hopped onto the shuttle and rode to the next stop up the canyon at the Grotto. From there we started our walk up to the Angel’s Landing. The trail is 2.7 miles one way and ascends 1,400 feet.
When we got off the bus, we saw a large, agitated wild turkey running and making “gobble, gobble” sounds. He was quite worked up for some reason.
The beginning of the trail had warning signs of the potential danger.
The trail started easily enough along the river, which was moving quickly from all the rain. Around where it began to get steep, Michele opted to sit on a rock at a nice overlook instead of having her heart explode from the exertion of the climb. Tom and Rob walked up to Scout’s Landing which is about 1,000 feet up and 2.2 miles from the canyon floor.
Along the way, they walked up Walter’s Wiggle. This is a very steeply graded (~30 degree grade) path that turns back on itself 19 times. It was quite challenging and both Rob and Tom were breathing pretty hard when they reached the top at Scout’s Landing.
Scout’s Landing is a popular rest point along the trail. The local chipmunks have figured out that backpacks hold food. As soon as folks put their bags down, the chipmunks would run over to the bags and try and get into them. They were quite entertaining.
The remaining 0.5 miles and 400 feet of the trail from Scout’s Landing to Angel’s Landing is a life-threatening exercise in treacherous rock climbing that neither Tom nor Rob were interested in att
empting. Some parts have a chain to hold onto while others you just need to find a good hand and foot hold in the rock wall.
Instead, they continued up the West Rim trail another 100 feet or so and enjoyed the vistas of the Zion Canyon. Rob saw a rare California Condor soaring high above.
The vistas from the top of their walk were quite amazing.
After spending about 20 or so minutes at the top, Tom and Rob descended the 2.2 miles and 1,100 feet back to the bottom of the trail and found Michele. By the time they got to the bottom, rain had started to fall. The time was 1:30pm and we were all ready for some lunch.
During lunch the rain picked up. After buying a few additional souvenirs (t-shirts boasting the walk to the top of the mountain) we retired back to our rooms. We had done quite a bit of physical exertion today, and with the rain we decided to call it a day.
Tomorrow, we leave this beautiful park and head for Moab. We plan on taking scenic Utah Hwy 12 through the mountains. We’ve heard that it is a very pretty ride and are looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful state.
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