In Zion National Park
The last of Utah’s “Mighty 5”, Zion, is both a wonder and a nightmare. When we arrive in the morning the parkings are already full and we have to find a free park in town. We then have to take one shuttle to the park, then an other one to visit the park. The shuttle system is great and leaves the park really quiet, but after all that we start our first walk at 11am. The Angel’s landing trail is one of the most dangerous walks in America. After doing 2.5 miles we reach the risky part: 0.75 miles on a narrow ridge with 1000 feet drop offs on each side. We do a bit of it to get the view on the canyon, but after watching the trail’s end for a long time we decide not to go. We trust ourselves, but the amount of people on the skinny trail is what makes it dangerous, and there are disrespectful people on the way… We head back down and go check out the Narrows. My guide books didn’t tell us about this highly popular walk in the cold river. Everyone rented wet socks and shoes but not us. Ben, in a typical Aussie way, goes barefeet until he can’t feel his toes and comes back.
We try to fit everything in one day and head to the Emerald pools where we see a Tarentula! But after that and about 10 miles of walking all day we stop and go to find some dinner, because we didn’t even have lunch, were wrecked.
After a night hearing baby coyotes practicing their owling we go back to Zion. We’re lucky the walk we want to do is at the entrance of the park because the line for the park shuttle is incredibly long (it’s Saturday). In the afternoon we head North of the park to the Kolob Canyons, a really quiet area, much more enjoyable.
