Angel's Landing

Well, for the last week of April, my PARENTS CAME TO TOWN TO VISIT! :) Yay! I haven't seen them since last July, so you better believe I was excited! I took a week off work and we all went on an adventurous 4-day trip to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon! Since I have tons of pictures, I've got to spread up the trip into multiple posts.

This post is of the first day, where we visited beautiful Zion National Park in Utah:

We based our day around a hike that we had heard a lot about. It's called the Angel's Landing trail and it is AWESOME! The first couple miles up are a "normal" style hike with a wide trail that is flat at points and much steeper with switchbacks at other points. One of my favorite parts of the hike is a place called "Refrigerator Canyon" and it was cool with shade and a nice breeze, which felt GREAT after hiking in the mid-day sun for a while. We discovered a neat cave (most likely carved by wind into the sandstone) that we crawled up inside and took a picture through the natural "window" that had formed:

The hike really was enjoyable, and this part of it was really neat! It was called Walter's Wiggles, I believe, and it was made up of 20 (or so?) very short switchbacks that carried you up to the top of the cliff fairly quickly. Can you spot us? :)
We finally reached a point in the hike called Scout's Landing. This is the farthest point in the hike that Boy Scouts are allowed to go, and with good reason. The last half mile of Angel's Landing hike really is ridiculously dangerous. Observe the danger sign:
So? Did we decide to be crazy people and risk our lives on small ledges, holding onto chains, with 1000 foot cliffs on either side of us ALL just so we could experience a great view AND so we could say we did it?? Um... yes we did! :) It wasn't even a question in my mind - I HAD to do it! I was so excited and a little nervous!! The next few pictures will show you just how worth it this awesome hike was:
Yes, that's a straight drop off on the right side of that picture above. And this is what you'd see if you looked over that way. Yep. That's a river. And the road.
So, as we carefully watched our foot placement and clung to the kindly-placed chains for our lives, we pushed onward to the top. I love this next picture - it really helps show you the type of terrain we were hiking on. See the thin strip of rock and trees to the upper left hand corner? That's where we had just hiked and we were only getting higher up! Say hi Dad:
But, I am glad to say that we MADE IT! :) We ate our sandwich lunches on the top of a rock overlooking THIS:

Smile! We made it up!

Uh oh... Now we have to go back.. Down!! Gulp! This was the part I worried about. What if I slipped?! It seemed like going down it would be a lot harder to control my speed and momentum, as I was moving with gravity this time! Just take a look at THIS:

But, I'm glad to say that it wasn't as bad as I anticipated and we all had SO MUCH FUN!
Celebration kiss! :) I think he's enjoying it!

Well, stay tuned! There's more to come! If you ever go to Zion National Park, and you aren't afraid of heights, then you MUST go on the Angel's Landing Hike. AND... no chickening out for that last half mile. It's SO amazing and totally worth it! Just talking about it makes me want to go back and do it again! :)