Zion National Park, UT

Within five days we are going to five different national parks. The first of which is Zion national park, located just north of Hurricane, Utah. A guide at the Grand Canyon told us to do the Angel landing hike, ensuring amazing views and few crowds. He neglected to tell us that the last half mile was uphill, on the side of a cliff, with at 2,000 foot drop using chains to hold on to the mountain. Words can’t accurately describe how dangerous how this climb was (and neither did the signs at the beginning of the trail). If a person slipped, they would fall off a shear cliff to a certain death. Sounds harsh, but is true! Each year multiple people fall off and yet the national park service keeps this trail open, much to the bewilderment of the handful of native Utah people we talked to about the trail. This being said, we hiked 2.5 miles to the top and then did the first half of the “chain” part of the trail and decided to call it a day, partially because of Laura’s fear of heights and partially because of Jeremy’s occasional clumsiness. We don’t think we missed out much because we saw beautiful views of the canyon and lived to tell about it. In the afternoon we hike up to the Emerald pools, an easy 3 miles with a tall waterfall at the end. All in all Zion is an amazing park with grand views of dramatic shear cliffs that rise out of the Virgin river. The cooler temperatures and wide variety of trails make this park a must see!

Baby owls napping in a tree.

The top of the cliff is the ending of the Angel Landing trail. Both sides drop off 2,000 feet!

The chains that are in the mountain to help you hold on.

The chains lead up the cliff in the background.

Waterfall at the end of the Emerald Pools trail.

Baby Big Horn sheep we saw on the way out of the park!