A Taste of Zion in the Form of Angel's Landing

That's a brief video I took when we (my mom, Ned, Wes, Rob, Laura and me) reached the pinnacle of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park during our family trip in June (everyone else stayed back at the camp for various reasons). The photos I took are better at illustrating the grandeur of the hike, but I just happened to have uploaded this video first, the photos will come later.

There is no way to sufficiently describe this hike, but suffice to say that it's one of the most thrilling and scary things I've ever done in my life due to the dizzying, sheer cliffs that drop off on either side of the trail at times.



Here's a description I found of the hike online:

"The Angels Landing Trail is one of the most famous and thrilling hikes in the national park system. Zion's pride and joy runs along a narrow rock fin with dizzying drop-offs on both sides. In complete contrast to the level Zion Narrows trail, the route to Angels Landing, one of the high mountains of Zion National Park, ascends 1,500 feet over a distance of 2.5 miles to the slickrock summit, which is ringed on three sides by the Virgin River far below and has amazing views in both directions up and down the canyon. The a perch boasts magnificent views in every direction. Rarely is such an intimidating path so frequented by hikers. One would think that this narrow ridge with deep chasms on each of its flanks would allure only the most intrepid of hikers. Climbers scale its big wall; hikers pull themselves up by chains and sightseers stand in awe at its stunning nobility. The towering monolith is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Southwest and is generally considered the best high elevation viewpoint in the park. The round trip can be done in less than 2 hours, though the NPS suggest 4 hours is the average time [we did the hike up in about 2 hours]."

The chains are a must during portions of the hike:



I will be doing a "mega post" with all of the photos and videos we took during our 4 day stay in the beautiful park, but I'm trying to find all of the photos I took when I went up to Utah for my cousins Christianne's wedding in May which have disappeared (I think they're on my external drive).

How "scary" is it? Well, if you keep one foot in front of the other and think clearly, it's not THAT bad, but I think this photo shows how crazy it actually is: