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You are here: Home / Travel / Zion National Park

Zion National Park

April 9, 2018

I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to visit a place so beautiful and relatively close. Just a few hours beyond the heat of the Las Vegas desert lies Zion National Park. In all honesty, it was a bit more developed and built out than I expected. The town of Springdale has hotels galore and a free shuttle that brings visitors to the park entrance. From there, another free shuttle runs within the park to bring patrons even deeper.

We decided we wanted to camp and Caitlyn woke up super early exactly two weeks before our trip to book the site. We had Site 6 right near the road. It was a cool place but considering how close it was to the highway, it wasn’t exactly ideal. Matter of fact, after our first night of howling winds, cars passing by and fine silt blowing throughout the tent, we decided to sleep in the car instead.

I digress, the best part of Zion was the daytime activities. Having only two days to spend at the park, we chose to hike up Angels Landing and walk upstream to the Narrows.

Angels Landing is a 2 mike hike with some intense switchbacks up to Scouts Lookout. From there it’s a 3/4 mile climb to the top. Yes. A climb. Imagine a narrow ridge with a 1,400 foot drop on both sides. Most of the trail has some kind of protective chain to give the illusion of safety but make no mistake, this part of the hike is not for the faint of heart. People die on this trail.

I’m all for being safe but I wonder if the chains give people a false sense of safety that emboldens the wrong people to take the trip. We passed plenty of people, both young and old who should not have been on that ridge.

Just 5 minutes after we got back down to Scout’s Lookout did we feel gusts of wind that must have been terrifying to those still up on the rock. Like I said, people die.

I totally recommend anybody that’s relatively fit to take the trip up and check it out.

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The Watchman taken from just above our campsite at South Campground. I had to climb up the side of a rocky hill to clear the trees.
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Our camp set up at the South Campground. To be honest, it wasn’t the coolest place we’ve set up camp. Then again, we didn’t really spend all that much time hanging at camp anyways.
old-man-camera-zion-national-park-utah
I was so pumped on this guy and his mini-DV camcorder. He and his wife were dressed alike and in between chats, she would study the map while he peered out the window clicking his camcorder on and off. Hearing the little beeps and sounds from his camera brought me back to a nostalgic state.
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You can drive about half of the road inside the park. The other half is accessible via the shuttle only. This makes squatting in the middle of the road to take photos much safer.
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Eager faced and ready for the hike just after sunrise.
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You can see just how small a bus fits into this space. Taken at ground level from a small bridge, the immense rock really makes you feel insignificant yet appreciative.

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The view from Angel’s Landing
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Everywhere you look, you see red rock and a blue sky. There’s no escaping it.
view-from-angels-landing-zion-national-park-utah
This is the view looking North from Angel’s Landing. This was taken about two feet from a ledge 1,400 feet up. You can see the white double length bus in the top right for context. This place was awe inspiring.
rocks-zion-national-park-utah
Near the beginning of the hike, you are faced with rock walls like this that immediately dwarf the surrounding landscape.
trees-rock-zion-national-park-utah
About 1/3 of the way into the last leg of the hike, there’s a clearing on the rock where Caitlyn and I hung out for a bit. I was drawn to the huge split in the rock and the interesting face-like shadows that were cast. The cool trees don’t hurt either.
bus-angels-landing-zion-national-park-utah
Another view to the north from Angel’s Landing. Note the bus in the corner.

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Utah

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