We arrived at Zion in the early afternoon and took the free shuttle around the park to give us an idea of how we wanted to spend our next day. We decided on two things: Angels Landing hike in the morning, and hiking up the Narrows Canyon in the afternoon.
The next morning, we forgot there was a time change here, so we left an hour later than we had hoped! It was still fine, as the temperatures here are about 10 degrees below normal, so the high was only going to be in the low 90's.
We think the girls had a fun time going up Angels Landing, as it was much shorter than Half Dome and the trail had 3 distinct difficulties: the first third was pretty flat, the middle third was 21 switchbacks and definite elevation gain, and the final third was hiking along the , at times, 3-6 foot wide trail with drop offs on one side of over 800 feet, and over 1200 feet on the other! Thankfully, there were chains in the rocks that you could hold on to! (in most places...). The views from the top were amazing and we spent some time up there enjoying it.
After lunch at beautiful Zion Lodge, we headed to the end of the road and the Zion Narrows hike. This starts with an easy one mile trail up the canyon and from there you are pretty much walking in a small river all the way up the canyon, as the canyon walls start to "narrow" - thus its name. We all had a blast, especially the girls who searched out the deep spots in the river, just so they could get cooled off . We hiked appox. 2.5 miles up, then turned around but you can go as much as 10 miles up. Brooke would like to come back and do the entire canyon next time!
Next stop - Jackson, Wyoming.
Miles traveled: 2800 and counting...
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