The next day we were a bit more ambitious with our hiking destinations. The first trail we set off on was up to Angel’s Landing, a prominent peak in the middle of the park. I had heard it was a bit scary for the last ½ mile, which involves hiking out a narrow knife ridge with 500’ drops on each side. What I hadn’t heard was that there would be major traffic jams of people too scared to move from the precarious perch they had attained. And the thing was, everyone would panic and freeze up just at the worst part, when two steps away was a big flat landing. Really, the last part only has two or three sections where you really wouldn’t want to fall. Nate, being the hot dog that he is, attempted and completed the hike out and back without using his hands. I’ll admit that I used the chain in a few places, I’m not big on scary heights.
The next hike that day was up part of The Narrows, which is the top of Zion Canyon. The hike starts out next to the river, and soon jumps right into the river as the canyon narrows down. Eventually it becomes a slot canyon, but we didn’t make it that far upstream due to failing light and my feet going numb. For the first time in many hikes, we were back at the car before sunset and didn’t have to resort to hiking by headlamp. Thus ended our quick trip to Zion. Before heading out to the cell phone black hole of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, we both called our respective sweetie pies and then hit the road for the drive out to someplace where we knew there would be way less people.