Angel's Landing Zion National Park

[jscrubs]

Thinking about driving over during our trip to Vegas next week. Anybody ever made the hike? Any suggestions? I've seen some videos and pictures and it looks terrifying but for some reason I still want to do it.
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[Hayduke GW]

Great trip. I'm not good with heights so kept a pretty strong grip on the chains along the spine where it's a long drop off. It's not dangerous but there is a strong pucker factor for those who don't like exposure.

Not sure what suggestions to make other than bring water and don't fall.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Valley of Fire is amazing esp if you hike out to the Wave and to some of the better petroglyphs sites. I did that instead of Zion last trip to Vegas and it was well worth it. I'll be doing Zion in April so I can't comment on it yet firsthand.

 

[gonolesgg]

Very neat hike. It got pretty windy near the end and ur high up. Being from Florida where it's flat the switch backs really got me.

The drive up there from Vegas is also nice. If possible I would try to spend night so u can hike Angels landing and then the narrows. St George or road where Zion is located has all the hotels etc
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[Superfan97]

If you have a day away from Vegas, you'll need to leave early and plan on getting back late. You'll also need to be in pretty good shape-- it's straight up for a while there-- and have a tolerance for heights. Realistically, it looks worse than it is-- the narrow part is 5-10 feet wide at the narrowest parts, and there is a chain rail to hold on to, but it can be intimidating even to experienced hikers.

If you can do an overnight, you should: not only because it will give you more time to go deeper into Zion, but because that place looks so different at different times in the day because of the way the sun lights up the canyon.

In any case, the Angels Landing hike is the best single thing you could do with the amount of time you have, and will ensure that you get enough into the canyon to have a good experience of "being there".

If you had another day, it would be good to go up the river into the Narrows, but this may be too early in the year-- I'm not sure if they even let people do the Narrows now, and if they do it will be cold.

 

[billanole]

I am gonna be lazy and copy a response to the tribe in an earlier post...

For a bit of adventure and amazing scenery, spend a couple of hours going up high. Wifey's nephew walked with us up onto the Angel's Landing in Zion...his third decade of doing so. You wind up a looong way above the valley floor accessed by a paved trail with lots of switchbacks leading to points that are no more than arms width wide, traversing rocks, holding onto cable, minor scrambling, and a 360 view at the top of a rock probably 30 x 30 feet that is thousands of feet above the floor below on all sides. Everything is down from where you are...way down. Nate was an amazing guide for us and has worked the region for years with the BLM and Park Service.

To get to the top, you walk up a paved trail (kinda different) for several miles. Pretty steep and with plenty of switchbacks. Several miles up, you come to a trail intersection. Some folks stop at this point, or go in different directions. It is from here up that the scramble begins.
Good shoes are your friend...for me going back down is harder than the upward trip. As an easterner, it is unusual to access a point so high above the valley floor in such a short period of walking. As someone earlier said, the different light thru out the day make for an amazing variety in what you see. We were there in the summer and during a windy period... Light weight clothing and water were our friends.
BTW, watch your speed heading in to the Park.. the stretch approaching the entrance is a known speed trap.

 

[fsu1jreed]

A couple of buddies and I drove through Zion National Park, but let's just say that those trails aren't the most handicapped accessible so we didn't get out of the car.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Originally posted by fsu1jreed:
A couple of buddies and I drove through Zion National Park, but let's just say that those trails aren't the most handicapped accessible so we didn't get out of the car.

It doesn't look that accessible to me period. I'm "outdoorsy" in that I'll primitive camp, fish, do some boating and kayaking, periodic sane whitewater rafting etc... But that high switchback with only a metal chain and apparently (from the reviews) aholes trying to run past you on a one way trail with a cliff to the side sounds pretty daunting. We'll see if I'm up for it when I get there. This will be the last of about five days of canyons, hikes, etc... and I'm still not entirely sold on Zion yet (versus all of the other amazing places I'll be going on the same trip).

 

[goldmom]

Some of the "improvements" in Zion - and at other national parks for that matter - were done by the WPA and the CCC during the Depression, when far fewer people had the means to make the trek in the first place, much less be done in a way that offered accessibility to those with mobility challenges.

That said, the scenery from a car window is so spectacular that it should not stop anyone from visiting. I hope you liked what you saw, JReed. For the record, yours truly didn't do any big hikes either.

 

[fsu1jreed]

Originally posted by goldmom:

That said, the scenery from a car window is so spectacular that it should not stop anyone from visiting. I hope you liked what you saw, JReed. For the record, yours truly didn't do any big hikes either.

It was absolutely beautiful...........as we were leaving the sun was setting so the reds came out everywhere.

 

[billanole]

Originally posted by fsu1jreed:

Originally posted by goldmom:

That said, the scenery from a car window is so spectacular that it should not stop anyone from visiting. I hope you liked what you saw, JReed. For the record, yours truly didn't do any big hikes either.

It was absolutely beautiful...........as we were leaving the sun was setting so the reds came out everywhere.

JReed, I hope you went thru the tunnel on the Zion-Mt Carmel Road. Cool as heck with the windows... If you are ever that way again, go into Zion at the Kolob Canyons entrance. It is a 5 mile one way trip in spectacular scenery. We were there in late summer. You exit Interstate 15 and drive east-northeast mostly. Since we were there late afternoon, the sun was mostly at our back. As you mentioned, the reds were everywhere. There were also all kinds of wildflowere, including lots of columbine in clumps growing out of the red gravel. We did a walk off of the road, but the scenery from the car was easily worth the trip.